Eden Project's geothermal energy plan secures funding

Partners the Eden Project and EGS Energy Limited said that the £16.8 million in funding would enable them to start drilling on Eden’s site next summer.

Eden Co-founder Sir Tim Smit said that securing funds amounted to the biggest leap forward for Eden since it opened in a former clay quarry near St Austell in 2001.

Sir Tim said: “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 centre 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. And we want to work with others all over the world - sharing knowledge and encouraging the change as fast as is humanly possible.”

The £16.8 million sum has been secured from a mixture of public and private sources. Cornwall’s final round of EU funding, the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), has contributed £9.9m. Cornwall Council has put in £1.4m. Institutional investors have contributed the remaining £5.5m.

The £16.8 million will pay for the first phase of the project – drilling one well, a research programme and a heat main, to prove the extent of the resource 4.5km down in the granite that lies beneath the Eden site.

This first well will initially supply a district heating system for Eden’s Biomes, offices and greenhouses. It will pave the way for the second phase – another 4.5km well and an electricity plant.

Completing the second phase will mean that Eden will be generating sufficient renewable energy to become carbon positive by 2023, as well as aiming to be able to provide heat and power for the local area.

To deliver the plan, a new company, Eden Geothermal Limited (EGL) has been formed.

The EGS Energy team was part of the Hot Dry Rocks geothermal programme in Cornwall in the 1980s, the follow-on EU programme in Soultz-sous-Forêts, France, and the subsequent commercial power generating projects in Landau and Insheim, Germany, among others worldwide. The University of Exeter will be providing academic and research services to the project.

Sir Tim paid tribute to the tenacity of the EGS Energy team and his own colleagues within Eden for enabling drilling to start and expressed huge thanks to the council, the EU and the institutional investors.

He said: “Geothermal will be a game changer for Eden, Cornwall and the UK. The heat will be used for the Biomes, to grow food, as well as helping support the development of our long-awaited hotel.

“Once up and running, our plant will provide more than enough renewable electricity and heat for the whole site, as well as for the local area. We will be drilling for good energy rather than bad.”

Guy Macpherson-Grant, MD of EGS Energy, said: “It is exciting that this geothermal development is under way. The geology in the county is particularly well-suited for cost-efficient heat and power generation, and St Austell benefits from particularly high heat flows.”

Augusta Grand, Director of Eden Geothermal Limited, who has led Eden’s geothermal project for the last seven years, said: “It is great that we’re now getting going on this project. Geothermal has huge potential to provide baseload heat and power on a very small surface footprint.

“We look forward to being able to demonstrate the advantages of the technology to Eden’s one million visitors a year and encourage greater investment.”

Steve Double, MP for St Austell and Newquay, said: "Cornwall’s unique geology enables geothermal energy to make a significant contribution to maintaining the Duchy’s clean energy credentials. It is great news that we have been able to secure funding for this scheme that fits well with the Eden Project's vision. I’d like to thank everyone who has been involved locally in getting us to this position.”

Glenn Caplin, chief executive of the Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership, said: “This is another huge step forward in the drive to create a geothermal industry in Cornwall, using our natural assets to decarbonise our economy and create high value jobs. Renewable energy is both an environmental and an economic opportunity for Cornwall, which is why clean growth is at the heart of our emerging Local Industrial Strategy.”

Cornwall Council cabinet portfolio holder for culture, planning and economy Bob Egerton said: “By providing strong support and investing in alternative forms of renewable energy, we are leading the way in making the most of Cornwall’s unique assets to benefit our residents and businesses as we work together to tackle the climate emergency.

“Geothermal energy promotes Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly as a ‘clean growth’ region and shows that our approach to the Government’s Industrial Strategy for Cornwall is shaped around the transition to an economy that is powered by clean energy. I hope that this focus on clean energy will expand to the wider south west and to the UK as a whole. This step change will be absolutely necessary if we are to meet our ambitions for tackling the climate emergency both locally and nationally.”

Cornwall Council cabinet portfolio holder for climate change and neighbourhoods Edwina Hannaford said: “Expanding renewable energy generation is a key part of our climate change action plan so that we can ensure a prosperous and sustainable Cornwall for everyone. Eden’s pioneering geothermal plans will bring benefits to the whole community in providing clean and renewable energy to the area.”