Domestic supply of energy and raw materials is becoming more important than ever. Ryan Law, CEO and founder of GEL says geothermal will be part of the solution.
The need for a secure, domestic supply of energy and raw materials has once again risen up the agenda for the UK and Europe. Supply chains are experiencing major disruption, with the price of oil continuing to fluctuate and emergency reserves released.
The impact of this hits everyone. Energy supply issues reverberate through businesses, agriculture, financial markets and have a direct and immediate effect on households, particularly those reliant on oil for energy.
Last month, GEL switched on the UK’s first powerplant generating electricity from geothermal resources. The proof-of-concept site in United Downs has been in development for almost 10 years, and would have been difficult to make happen without the support of the community, Cornwall Council and our local MPs. It operates through two deep geothermal wells, and will generate 3MW of electricity, enough to power around 10,000 homes. Importantly, the deep geothermal waters are also extremely rich in minerals, including lithium, and GEL is in the process of scaling up a commercial lithium extraction processing plant, putting the company at the forefront of UK lithium production, as well as geothermal power. GEL can already produce 100 tonnes per annum (TPA) scaling to over 18,000 tpa over the next decade, enough for circa 250,000 EV batteries a year.
Geothermal in the UK is still in its infancy as a sector. There are a number of projects, many of them producing heat rather than power, and there is a pipeline of opportunities coming through, for example heat-based geothermal projects co-located with NHS hospitals. But in other parts of the world, geothermal resources are already being harnessed to contribute significantly to rising energy needs, and provide the all-important homegrown baseload power.
There is a resilience to geothermal energy that is lacking in other sources of clean energy. With heat coming from deep underground, geothermal is not reliant on weather conditions and as such it provides renewable, 24/7 power. It is this baseload power that is required to meet the rising energy demands from the electrification of heat and cars. Also for high tech uses, in the US, companies like Google and META are signing deals with geothermal powerplants, seeking to decarbonise their energy supply as well as secure it.
Following on from our project at United Downs, GEL aims to be starting work on new sites in the near future, continuing to facilitate the extraction of critical minerals as well as geothermal energy. Beyond the inward investment that this growth generates, it also provides opportunity for skilled jobs, with around 100 roles estimated per site.
The fragility of energy supply chains continues to be exposed by global events and the UK needs to consider how it will address this issue. Geothermal is currently an unharnessed resource for the UK, but it has real potential to contribute alongside other proposed domestic energy options.
