The Eden Geothermal Well at the Eden Project in Cornwall, UK
Eden geothermal
The UK’s first new deep geothermal heating plant since 1987 opened today at the Eden Project in Cornwall, and developers hope the scheme will help inspire a new wave of geothermal energy projects across the country.
Geothermal energy, which takes heat from deep underground and uses it for heating and electricity generation, currently provides less than 0.3% of the UK’s annual heat demand.
Eden’s new geothermal well, which extends nearly 3 miles (5 kilometers) below the Earth’s surface, now pumps heat into the tourist spot’s famed geodesic “biomes” and a new greenhouse, developers said on June 19.
The project has taken more than a decade, with Brexit, covid-19 and supply chain issues all causing delays. A series of seismic tremors also halted testing of the new well in March 2022.
Gus Grand, the CEO of Eden Geothermal, the company behind the project, says it is “great” to complete it.
The well is expected to cut the Eden Project’s heating costs – which total more than £1 million a year – by 40 per cent and enable the site to offer a menu that comes with food available all year round. being built on site.
Eden Geothermal hopes its new source will inspire large institutional or industrial sites, such as hospitals and factories, to pursue geothermal energy. Grand says yes already answered calls from major food producers interested in visiting the well for more information.
The UK is well suited to geothermal energy, she believes, partly because the sources are already well mapped. “We have very, very good exploration data in the sedimentary aquifers because of oil and gas exploration,” says Grand. But the UK lags far behind its European neighbors in terms of installation rates.
Studies have suggested geothermal could meet the UK’s annual heating demand for at least a century, prompting MPs last year to call on the government to do more to bring new projects to fruition.
A government white paper on the potential of geothermal energy is expected in the coming weeks. Grand hopes this will remove some of the key policy barriers to its development, such as the lack of ring-fenced grants.
Delays in connecting new renewable energy projects to the electricity grid are another major problem. Adding these new connection points requires upgrades to the network and local power substations. These upgrades have not kept pace with the growth of renewables over the past decade – particularly in the Southwest – causing the system to stall.
The Eden project could house an extra well, which can generate clean electricity in addition to heat. But the earliest grid connection the company has been offered for the project is December 2036. “It’s really, really hard for me to build a business case,” based on such a distant date, says Grand.
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