How realistic are geothermal ambitions in the UK? – an article
Southampton Geothermal District Heating Plant, UK (source: dekb.co.uk)
Alexander Richter
5 Oct 2015
A recent article looks into how realistic geothermal development ambitions are for the UK, while correctly pointing out challenges for power generation it falls short on describing ongoing geothermal development projects for district heating and the potential for wider application.
The UK has seen some coverage on ThinkGeoEnergy in the past few years, first with news on EGS project ambitions in/ near Cornwall and as of late more on geothermal heating projects.
While the EGS projects seem to be either stuck or abandoned, geothermal heating projects in Newcastle, Manchester or Cheshire are proceeding.
The recent article “Geothermal energy in the UK: Hot topic or a Utopian dream?”, published in The Gist in September looks on how realistic these ambitions are.
The article describes the geological settings of the UK and provides some comparison, going then into the opportunities for geothermal heat pumps before then going into “deep geothermal applications”.
The article makes reference to a rather positive report by SKM (now Jacobs) on the geothermal potential for the UK. It then describes the opportunity for the UK deriving geothermal power from Iceland through a submarine cable, not much of own geothermal utilisation for the UK.
The article falls short naming the projects that are ongoing and could actually provide necessary success stories for a wider application.
But overall it provides some good links and overview information.
Source: The Gist
