The UK is set to get its first commercial geothermal power plant following a partnership between EGS Energy and the Eden Project. The Eden Project is situated on the Cornish coast in southern England, and EGS believes that the underlying granite rock holds huge untapped potential for adding to the UK’s power mix. The proposed plant will aim for an output of 3MW, but EGS engineers claim that geothermal energy stored in the rocks below Cornwall could eventually provide up to 10% of the UK’s entire electricity requirements. The power plant at Eden Project will consist of a two-borehole system – one injection well and one production well – both about 3-4km deep. Water would be circulated between the bottoms of the two wells, where it will be heated by the hot rocks before being returned to the surface at approximately 150C. There, it will drive a binary turbine to create electricity at a planned capacity of 3MW. The partners also hope to use the hot water for community heating, before it is returned to the reservoir. The project is expected to be up and running by 2012.
