Samuel OskysThe Eden project located in Cornwall has received the majority of funding from the local council and the European Union at the cost of £16.8m to begin drilling three miles for geothermal energy.
Co-founder of the Eden project that has been open since 2001 comments:
“Since we began, Eden has had a dream that the world should be powered by renewable energy. The sun can provide massive solar power and the wind has been harnessed by humankind for thousands of years, but because both are intermittent and battery technology cannot yet store all we need there is a gap.
We believe the answer lies beneath our feet in the heat underground that can be accessed by drilling technology that pumps water towards the center of the Earth and brings it back up superheated to provide us with heat and electricity.
The missing piece of the jigsaw in a 24/7 clean renewable energy future is this baseload. Now we have the green light and the funding to start drilling we are determined to make this technology work.”
The £16.8m raised will fund the first part of the project that involves drilling a well, research and a heat main. The first well will provide energy for Eden’s biomes, offices, and greenhouses.
This will then set the way for the second phase that will create another well that will be three miles deep. The second phase will enable Eden to generate sufficient renewable energy to become carbon positive by 2023, and it aims to be able to provide heat and power for the local area.
Glenn Caplin, chief executive of the Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership commented on the development saying:
“This is another huge step forward in the drive to create a geothermal industry in Cornwall, using our natural assets to decarbonize our economy and create high-value jobs. Renewable energy is both an environmental and an economic opportunity for Cornwall.”
The increase in the use of green energy has enabled renewable electricity to overtake fossil fuels for the first time in the UK.
