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GT Energy successfully raises $2.75 million for UK heating project

GT Energy successfully raises $2.75 million for UK heating project Devonshire Street North, Manchester, UK (source: flickr/ Gene Hunt, creative commons)
Alexander Richter 26 Oct 2013

With recently secured funding of $2.75 million, Irish GT Energy is now planning the start of detailed geological work producing thermal models, with support of German company Erdwerk.

Irish company GT Energy reports it has raised around GBP1.7 million ($2.75 million) from new and existing shareholders. The company will be investing around GBP 450,000 ($730,000) in the next development stage of its Devonshire Street geothermal heating project, according to Padraig Hanly, Managing Director of GT Energy.

The funding helps the company to now undertake detailed geological evaluation work, producing thermal models of the site of the project, which is to help on final planning to extract heat for the project going forward.

The company raised the funding through a round led by the Low Carbon Innovation Fund (LCIF), a venture capital fund managed by Turquoise International on behalf of the Adapt Low Carbon Group at the University of East Anglia and supported by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

‘We will be working with our contractor Erdwerk, which is highly experienced in deep geothermal development in Germany,’ continues Hanly. ‘From here, we expect to move from planning permission to a position where we will be ready to break ground on the site in spring 2015.’

The company then starts drilling in the spring of 2015, with potential first heating to be delivered in the spring of 2016. The resources are expected to be found in around 3,000 meter depth below Manchester with a piping system to then deliver heat to homes and businesses in the city of Manchester.

The heating from geothermal will be cheaper than current heating sources for residents and companies in the area and the project will create more than 100 new jobs. When completed, the Devonshire Street project is expected to be the largest commercial geothermal heating system in the UK.

Source: Renewable Energy Focus