£6 million to search for deep heat underground
Elaine Brass
26th October 2009
The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has announced the launch of a £6 million fund to explore geothermal energy.
The funding, which is available to bid for from now, will help companies carry out the exploratory work that is needed to find viable sites for geothermal energy.
Geothermal power is an energy source with a minimal carbon footprint
and produces low or zero emissions by using the earth’s natural heat as
a sustainable power source. Engineered geothermal system (EGS) technology works by drilling down to depths of 1,000 to 10,000 metres,
pumping water down to be heated by the hot rocks to temperatures of 200
degrees centigrade.
There
is currently one working EGS station in the UK – the
Southampton District Energy Scheme run by the French company Utilicom. The station uses hot water pumped
from 1800 metres below ground as part of the city’s district heating network
and has operated for over 20 years, saving an estimated
11,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.
The abundance of energy trapped deep underground, particularly in some parts of the UK, such as Cornwall, is leading to a number of new projects being developed. Earlier this month, Geothermal
Engineering Ltd, the London-based geothermal company, outlined
plans to establish the UK’s largest commercial scale geothermal power
plant near Redruth in Cornwall. The proposed plant
will supply 10 megawatts (MW) of base load
electricity to the National Grid and up to 55 MW of renewable heat for
local use.
Meanwhile, in June, the Eden Project announced plans to establish a geothermal plant in an old clay quarry at Bodelva, near St Austell, Cornwall, to turn into electricity and heat to power the visitor attraction and education centre .
The new DECC funding, which is part of its low carbon investment fund, is inviting project bids from England, Scotland and Wales, with £4 million available this year before the closing date of November 20. A further £2 million will be made available in the next financial year.
Commenting on the funding, Energy and Climate Change Minister, Lord Hunt said: “Deep geothermal energy is an exciting and innovative technology that could provide clean, low carbon and renewable power and heat for the UK. 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 two per cent of the UK’s annual electricity demand, potentially creating thousands of jobs in the building and running of new power plants.”
Geothermal technology falls into the ‘innovative’ technology band and is thus eligible for support at a rate of two Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs) per MWh generated and heat from deep geothermal sources could also be eligible for support from DECC’s forthcoming Renewable Heat Incentive.
DECC officials have been working with the emerging deep geothermal industry and are considering future regulatory aspects of the sector, such as possible systems for licensing the exploration and exploitation of deep geothermal heat.