Eden Project

Geothermal power plant at Eden gets go-ahead

Great news – we’ve just been given planning permission to build a geothermal power plant at Eden. We’re collaborating with EGS Energy to bring the revolutionary green technology to Eden, where it will draw energy from deep below the earth’s surface to produce heat and electricity.

The plant should produce up to 4MW of electrical capacity, so as well as using it to power Eden, we’ll be able to send excess off to the National Grid (enough for approximately 5,000 homes). And we’ll use the heat to warm our Biomes.

How does it work?
To access the ‘hot rocks’ underground, we’ll need two 4.5km-deep boreholes. At the bottom of these two wells water is heated by hot rocks and returned to the surface at approximately 180 degrees centigrade. Back up at the top, the heat is extracted from the water to drive a turbine to create electricity and to provide hot water to heat our Biomes.

Further down the line it’s possible that the hot water could be of use to others in the locality before it’s returned into the reservoir – including as community heating or for horticulture, industry or leisure. Drilling is tabled to start in the second half of 2011, with electricity production expected in the second half of 2013.

What does it mean for Cornwall?
The plant isn’t just exciting for Eden, but for the county too, which has pioneered the technology over the last three decades. Matt Hastings, Eden’s Energy Manager, says: “It’s great that EGS Energy has permission to proceed with the plant and now the real work begins. We are in the early stages of a massive project which we hope will be the catalyst for a series of geothermal power plants throughout Cornwall.

“If all goes according to plan, EGS technology will provide well-needed resilience to the Cornish power grid while also helping to meet the daunting national challenge of a six-fold increase in renewable electricity and a 22-fold increase in renewable heat by 2020.”

Find out more about our plans

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Cornwall, Environment, Sustainability

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Cornwall, Environment, Geothermal, renewable energy, Sustainability