Cornwall to Get 'Commercial-Scale' Geothermal Power Plant

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Geothermal Engineering Limited (London, England) has announced plans to create the United Kingdom's 'first commercial-scale geothermal power plant.'

The project, located near Redruth in Cornwall on the southwest coast of England, will supply 10 megawatts (MW) of base-load electricity to the national grid and up to 55 MW of renewable heat for local use. Subject to planning permission, drilling will commence in mid-2010, and the plant will start operations by 2013.

This is not the first project in the U.K. that claims to be the first 'commercial-scale' geothermal plant. In June this year, another Cornwall-based project was unveiled from EGS Energy (Penzance, England) and the Eden Project, the world-famous ecology site in Cornwall. The proposed plant is aiming for an output of 3 MW, but EGS engineers maintain that geothermal energy stored in the rocks below Cornwall could eventually provide up to 10% of the U.K.'s entire electricity requirements. For additional information, see related news items from June 4, 2009 - U.K. to Get First Commercial Geothermal Power Plant.

Geothermal Engineering has plans to deliver up to 300 MW of clean, sustainable electricity and up to 1 gigawatt (GW) of renewable heat for communities across the southwestern U.K. for the next 20 years. The plan for the Cornwall project is to have wells drilled to approximately 5 kilometres, where temperatures are expected to exceed 170 degrees Celsius. Water will be pumped into the rock, where it will be 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.

"Geothermal energy has been in use for millennia, even in the U.K., where the Romans used it for bathing," said Ryan Law, managing director of Geothermal Engineering Limited. "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 U.K. at minimal environmental cost."

At the Eden Project, the EGS Energy power plant will consist of a two-borehole system--one injection well and one production well--both about 3 to 4 kilometres deep. The project is expected to be up and running by 2012. Today, the total global installed geothermal electricity capacity is approximately 10 GW.

Last week, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) announced £6 million ($9.8 million) of funding for geothermal projects in England and Wales. The funds, divided into £4 million ($6.5 million) this year and £2 million ($3.3 million) next year, will be used to help companies carry out the exploratory work needed to find viable sites.

Energy and Climate Change Minister Lord Hunt commented: "Deep geothermal energy is an exciting and innovative technology that could provide clean, low-carbon and renewable power and heat for the U.K. We want to make sure that this energy resource can play a part in the future low-carbon energy mix. Deep geothermal power from the South West of England alone could meet 2% of the U.K.'s annual electricity demand, potentially creating thousands of jobs in the building and running of new power plants."

There is currently one geothermal energy station in the U.K., the Southampton District Energy Scheme, which uses hot water pumped from 1,800 metres below ground as part of the city's district-heating network. The facility has been operating successfully for more than 20 years, saving an estimated 11,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.

IIR's Renewable Energy Database provides extensive coverage on the Wind Energy, Geothermal, Hydroelectric, Landfill Gas-to-Energy and Utility-Scale Solar power plants throughout North America, and is now expanding coverage across the world.

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