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Summary
Cast your eyes across the hazy horizon towards the Irish Sea and wind turbines dot the seascape. Look skywards in London, and solar panels glisten atop office buildings. In remotest Scotland, an ocean-powered EV charge point stands ready. The UK is on an undeniable path towards green energy, with visual reminders aplenty. In 2020, for the first time, renewables were the UK’s main source of electricity for the whole year, not just in summer.
But when it comes to geothermal, which some reports have claimed could supply up to 20 per cent of the UK’s energy, “there’s nothing visible to see!” says Dr Ryan Law, founder and managing director of Cornwall-based Geothermal Engineering. “But there are many more systems than people realise. Everything from systems 25m below the ground all the way through to depths of 5.2kms. There’s a whole spectrum,” he explains.
Law points out that many high-profile buildings in London – Royal Festival Hall, London City Hall and the Tate Modern extension among them – employ the heating and cooling powers of the earth. There are other ‘shallow’ geothermal sites dotted around the UK too, such as a well-established district energy project in Southampton. But until now, ‘deep’ geothermal had yet to be tapped for electricity.
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