International law firm Eversheds has advised Geothermal Engineering on securing ...

International law firm Eversheds has advised Geothermal Engineering on securing the land for development of what will be the UK’s first commercial deep geothermal power plant, near Redruth in Cornwall, which has now been granted planning permission by Cornwall Council. The plant is to be built on a brownfield site within an existing industrial estate. Work will begin in early 2011 to drill 4.5 km into the ground to access rocks at temperatures of approximately 200ºC. This will be the deepest onshore well in the UK. The plant will provide up to 55 MW of renewable heat energy for the local community and 10 MW of electricity. Commenting on the project, Ryan Law, Managing Director of Geothermal Engineering and Chair of the Renewable Energy Association’s Deep Geothermal Group, said: ‘With the development of our plant we want to make deep geothermal energy a significant contributor to the UK’s energy portfolio. Not only can we contribute renewable, continuous power to the grid, we also want to change the way the UK meets its heat demands by offering energy-efficient, decentralised heat. The Department of Energy and Climate Change has already estimated that deep geothermal technology could supply between 1 GW and 5 GW of baseload renewable electricity by 2030.’