Planning permission granted for “UK’s first” geothermal plant
Monday 16 August 2010
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| Geothermal Engineering‘s process sees wells drilled 4.5km into the earth with cold water pumped onto the ‘Hot Rocks‘ with the resultant steam pumped back to the surface |
Cornwall council has granted planning permission for the UK's first commercial-scale deep geothermal power plant at a site near Redruth.
The plant is being developed by London-based Geothermal Engineering and is intended to generate 55MW of renewable heat energy and 10MW of electricity when it becomes fully operational in 2013.
Approval of the planning application last week (August 13) means the company can drill three wells 4.5km in depth at the United Downs industrial estate, which is an existing brown field site. Work is set to start in early 2011.
The company said that this would be the deepest onshore well in the UK and hailed the approved application as a "major milestone" in the development of geothermal renewable energy sources in the UK.
Ryan Law, managing director of Geothermal Engineering and chair of the Renewable Energy Association's Deep Geothermal Group, said: "With the development of our plant we want to make deep geothermal energy a significant contributor to the UK's energy portfolio.
"Not only can we contribute renewable, continuous power to the grid, we also want to change the way the UK meets its heat demands by offering energy-efficient, decentralised heat. The Department of Energy and Climate Change has already estimated that deep geothermal technology could supply between one and five GW of baseload, renewable electricity by 2030."
The company is currently seeking funding for the facility from business partners and the European Regional Development Fund. It was awarded £1.475 million by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) in December 2009 (see this NewEnergyFocus.com story).
Process
Geothermal systems use the Earth's natural heat as a sustainable power source. Wells will be drilled to 4.5 km where temperatures are around 200 degrees Celsius. Water will be pumped down into the rock where it is naturally heated, before being pumped back to the surface as hot water or steam.
The heated water will be used to power turbines to generate electricity and as the source of renewable heat. Geothermal Engineering chose Cornwall to develop the plant as previous research showed that Cornwall had a suitable heat resource which is trapped in granite underground.
This approval marks the first major proposal for geothermal energy development in the UK on a commercial scale, and, in October, it was forecasted that the sector could account for 4,000MW of renewable energy across Europe by 2016 (see this NewEnergyFocus.com story).
Approval for the project was welcomed by Professor Frances Wall, head of the Camborne School of Mines, which is a department of the University of Exeter specialising in engineering, mathematics and physical sciences.
Professor Wall said: "The Camborne School of Mines has been involved in deep geothermal research for decades so to see a commercial project coming to fruition is immensely satisfying. Geothermal has significant potential in the UK and the region stands to benefit significantly from this development in terms of being at the forefront of geothermal exploration."
Plans unveiled for “UK’s first” commercial-scale geothermal plant
Tuesday 20 October 2009
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| This technical diagram shows how the Geothermal Engineering Ltd process works – the cutaway shows the blue-coloured pipe pumping cold water into the ‘Hot Rocks’ while the red-coloured pipe is pumping the hot water/steam back up to the surface. |
Plans have been put in place to develop what has been hailed as the UK's first commercial-scale geothermal power plant which will supply 10MW of base load electricity to the National Grid and up to 55MW of renewable heat for local use.
Geothermal Engineering Ltd - a privately-owned British company specialising in the proving and development of geothermal resources - outlined plans for the project near Redruth in Cornwall last week (October 12) and, subject to planning permission, the start date for drilling will be mid 2010, with the plant set to be commercially operational by 2013.
These plans came after the Eden Project spoke in June at the House of Lords of hopes to build a geothermal plant that would generate 3MW of power and "several" megawatts of heat energy .
Over the coming months, Geothermal Engineering Ltd will be consulting with the local community, council and universities on their preferred options for using the renewable heat. Geothermal heat is often used as a source for low cost heating, agriculture, industry and to provide cooling to high tech businesses.
Ryan Law, MD of Geothermal Engineering Ltd, said: "Geothermal energy has been in use for millennia, even in the UK where the Romans used it for bathing.
"Modern technology allows us to target deeper, hotter geothermal resources to provide a sustainable source of electricity and heat. Our vision is to provide renewable power in the UK at minimal environmental cost," he added.
Conservative leader David Cameron visited Cornwall in May this year to find out about the potential for so-called "heat mining", which experts believe could offer 10% of the country's energy needs .
Technology
Geothermal systems use the Earth's natural heat as a sustainable power source. Wells will be drilled to approximately 5 km where temperatures are expected to exceed 170 degrees centigrade. Water will be pumped down into the rock where it is naturally heated, before being pumped back to the surface as hot water or steam.
The heated water will be used to power turbines to generate electricity and as the source of renewable heat. Geothermal Engineering Ltd chose Cornwall to develop the plant as previous research proved that Cornwall has a suitable heat resource which is trapped in granite underground.
Over the next 20 years, Geothermal Engineering Ltd plans to deliver up to 300 MW of clean, sustainable electricity and up to 1 GW of renewable heat for communities across the South West of the UK.
Geothermal energy is already being used in countries including America, Germany, Australia, New Zealand and Iceland. Geothermal power is a renewable energy source with a minimal footprint and produces low or zero emissions.
The total global installed geothermal electricity capacity is approximately 10 GW.
