Pending government support halts EGS project in Cornwall
Twilight Castle, Redruth, Cornwall/ UK
Alexander Richter
2 Apr 2013
The EGS project at United Downs in Cornwall, England has been put on hold as the project developer wasn´t able to secure matching funding mostly due to still pending government support.
Geothermal Engineering in Cornwall is one of two companies planning an EGS geothermal power project in Cornwall, England. In a statement now by its managing directory Ryan Law, the company announces it put its project on hold pending government support.
This puts the GBP 50 million ($76 million) scheme on hold. The company has a planning permission to drill at United Downs with funding offered of GBP 6 million ($9 million) towards the project from the Regional Growth Fund. Geothermal Engineering though has not been able to secure sufficient matched funding from the private sector to start drilling.
“Unless the government indicates how it wants the sector to develop, the company could loose the promised funding and the scheme would be put on hold”.
Ryan Law said: “The sector is at a fairly early stage and it is difficult to persuade private sector investors, even high risk investors, to put their money into a technology which has not yet been proven in the UK.” The main issue seems to be that despite the support of local politicians for the project it simply doesn’t get on the radar of the UK’s Energy Minister Greg Barker.
Source: This is Cornwall
