EGS, Eden Project announce geothermal energy plan

Geothermal energy firm EGS Energy and the Eden Project have come together to build the UK’s first geothermal plant.

As reported in The Guardian, the two organisations announced the project today in Westminster.

Under the proposed scheme, EGS would build a geothermal plant that would draw heat energy from granite rock formations some 4 kilometres underground in Cornwall. Water pumped via boreholes would be naturally and cleanly heated by the rocks, after which the water would be pumped back to the surface and put through a heat exchanger to generate electricity.

The proposed system would first generate power for the Eden Project, which features both biome-based and outdoor gardens. Eventually, however, EGS expects to produce enough energy to feed excess electricity back into the grid.

If a series of projects could eventually be built tapping into Cornwall’s hot rocks, the resulting energy generated could possibly provide as much as 10 per cent of the UK’s power needs, according to EGS and the Eden Project.