By Renewable Energy Focus staff

The three geothermal projects are run by Keele University, Newcastle and Durham University and Cofily District Energy in Southampton.

Minister of State for Energy and Climate Change Greg Barker says: “I want to ensure that geothermal energy – which is both renewable and can be produced locally – can become one of the energy technologies of the future.”

He adds: “Geothermal sources in the South West of the UK alone have the potential to meet 2% of the country’s annual electricity demand”.

The first round concentrated on deep geothermal power, and the two successful Cornwall-based projects continue to move ahead. The second round has concentrated on heat-only geothermal projects.

The funding has been allocated as follows:

• £500,000 to Keele University, to drill a 1200 m borehole to provide geothermal heat for their proposed sustainable campus;
• £400,000 to a Newcastle/Durham University project to fund the drilling, hydraulic testing and geophysical logging of a 2 km deep geothermal borehole at Science Central, a large development in central Newcastle; and
• £200,000 to Cofily District Energy Ltd, to part-fund the refit of the Southampton deep geothermal well.