Industry headlines

Geothermal Engineering Ltd has been granted planning permission to develop the UK’s first commercial geothermal power plant at their Redruth site in Cornwall. Cornwall Council has approved the planning application for three wells to be drilled at United Downs industrial estate, near Redruth. Outline permission has also been given for a geothermal power plant at the site that will produce 10 MW of electricity, to be fed into the National Grid and 55 MW of renewable heat energy which could be used for the local community. Click here for full story

The Greens are proposing that the federal government almost quadruple support for large-scale solar, geothermal and other forms of renewable energy by guaranteeing up to $5 billion of loans to new power stations. Greens deputy leader Christine Milne said the existing program for $1.75 billion of renewable energy grants was too small to spark the full use of Australia's potential resources of ''sun, wind, ocean, earth, and human ingenuity''. Click here for full story

Two educational establishments have reached the top of the class for energy performance by using renewable ground source energy. St John’s College, Oxford, and the new Ynysowen Community Primary School in South Wales, will reap major financial and environmental benefits from ground source heat pump technology from ENER-G. Click here for full story

Renewable energy sources accounted for 62 per cent (17GW) of the new electricity generation capacity installed across the 27 member states of the European Union in 2009, an increase from 57 per cent in 2008, according to a European Commission report.According to the "Renewable Energy Snapshots" report, published on July 5 2010 by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC), for the second year running, wind energy accounted for the largest share of the new capacity: 10.2 GW out of the 27.5 GW built, representing 38 per cent of the total. Click here for full story

Britain’s AMEC has won a £4.5m ($6.8m) contract to provide engineering services for the 49MW Hudson Ranch I geothermal project at Salton Sea, California that will be built by EnergySource that is due online in 2012. AMEC will be responsible for design, engineering, training and assistance in construction, which is estimated at 21 months, and in the start-up phase. Click here for full story

Sensus, the metering systems leader, is playing a key role in a pioneering clean energy project in Spain that is exploiting geothermal energy in the underground system in Madrid (Metro).
Working with Spanish companies Termoterra and IFTec Geoenergía, Sensus became involved last summer (in 2009) in a project to use the metro environment as a means of cooling and heating the platforms, offices and commercial space of the Pacífico Metro station by installing a geothermal heat pump. Click here for full story

Martin Wainwright reports on guardian.co.uk from the Pennines on a new project to raise hot water from granite rock. Click here for full story

Scientists have pumped out the first hot water from the depths of rural County Durham as part of plans for an eco-village. The site of the former Lafarge cement works in Eastgate, Weardale, has been earmarked for the multi-million pound scheme, which includes a "thermal spa." Click here for full story

Ireland is already doing pretty well with renewable energy compared to most other countries. Recently the government announced that it has already met its target for the end of 2010 of 15% from renewable sources. But the country isn’t resting on its laurels; it has set an ambitious new goal of 40% from renewable sources by 2020. One way Ireland plans to meet that goal is by adding geothermal energy to its arsenal of renewable sources. Recently GT Energy and ESB International have agreed to share information in order to establish potential sites for geothermal energy plants. Click here for full story

Ventilation firm Vent-Axia is set to launch a heat pump division to compete in the renewables market. From May this year, the firm will offer both ground source and air source heat pumps aimed at the domestic and light commercial markets. Click here for full story

Iceland could pay the £3.48bn it owes the UK and Holland by providing the two countries with a steady stream of green electricity instead of cash, if an ambitious proposal by a small Dutch think-tank takes hold. Gijs Graafland, the director of the Amsterdam-based Planck Foundation, contacted Iceland's Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir and its President Olafur Grimsson early this month to suggest that Iceland use its abundant supply of geothermal energy to pay back the British and Dutch loans that bailed out Iceland's failed Icesave bank. Click here for full story

Mitsubishi Electric has become the first UK manufacturer of heat pumps to be awarded the European Eco-label in recognition of the superior environmental performance of its Ecodan range of residential heating units. The label guarantees that the company’s three Ecodan products meet the European Energy Directive environmental criteria for heat pumps. Click here for full story

Pyecombe Golf Club, which already holds awards for its environmental management policy, is about to go greener with the installation of a ground source heat pump which will significantly reduce its carbon footprint. Click here for full story

A system to harness hot natural waters for renewable energy is to be created in County Durham. Newcastle University is leading plans to develop a "huge central heating system" deep below the site of a proposed eco village in Weardale. Click here for full story

Plans to develop the UK's first commercial-scale geothermal power station in Cornwall have secured nearly £1.5m of government funding. The power plant - using "hot rocks" technology - is to be based at Redruth and would provide electricity and heat for homes and businesses. Click here for full story

It was supposed to be an environmentally friendly way of generating electricity. When geologists in Switzerland drilled deep into the ground, they planned to pump water into the shaft and use the steam generated by hot rocks to power 10,000 homes. But the geothermal power plant had to be abandoned after a series of earthquakes, one registering magnitude 3.4, damaged properties in the city of Basel, a court heard. Click here for full story

Ground pumps could help UK meet renewable energy targets by 2020, Environment Agency report says…… Renewable technology that uses energy stored in the ground to heat buildings and provide hot water could be installed in hundreds of thousands of homes and offices by the end of the next decade, a report said today (8 December). There are currently around 8,000 ground-source heat pumps systems in the UK – far fewer than in other European countries, such as Sweden, although the market is expanding rapidly and doubled last year, the Environment Agency report said. Click here for full story

A number of Scottish homeowners may be set to benefit from the introduction of air source heat pump green building products into their properties. New grants for the devices will be offered to some of the country's rural residents, with the Energy Assistance Package launched by Scottish ministers set to provide the funding. Alex Neil, housing and communities minister at the Scottish government, commented that the financial support should help with the costs of energy bills. Click here for full story

The geothermal industry is set to "gather steam" in the coming years to reach installed capacity of around 4,000MW in 2016, a sector analyst has claimed. Market research firm Frost & Sullivan has published a study saying that governments' support is boosting the geothermal energy market in Europe and forecasting that the high initial investment costs will subside. Click here for full story

Plymouth could be in line to reap the economic benefits from the exploitation of a previously untapped underground energy source. The Government says harnessing geothermal power in the area would not only help towards meeting the nation's energy needs, but also create thousands of jobs in the region building and running of new power plants. Click here for full story

£6million is available from today to fund exploration for natural energy under the ground. Deep geothermal is a renewable energy that uses the natural heat from deep underground to produce non-intermittent electricity and heat at the surface. £6million is available from today to fund exploration for natural energy under the ground. Deep geothermal is a renewable energy that uses the natural heat from deep underground to produce non-intermittent electricity and heat at the surface. The fund, part of the Department of Energy and Climate Change low carbon investment fund will help companies carry out exploratory work needed to find viable sites for this technology. Click here for full story

A British energy firm is planning to develop the first commercial geothermal power plant, which harnesses the energy of super hot rocks beneath the earth. The Geothermal Engineering Ltd plant should be operational by 2013 and will use the Earth's natural heat as a sustainable power source. Next year the company plans to drill 8inch wells that are 5km deep where temperatures exceed 170C….. The company plan to build the site, which would measure less than half an acre, near Redruth in Cornwall. Click here for full story

Plans are being drafted for a geothermal energy plant in Cornwall to provide electricity and heat for homes and businesses. The sustainable energy plant would be based in Redruth and provide 55MW annually for local use and 10MW for the national grid. Click here for full story

Just a couple of kilometres from where YOU are standing now [Note: this article appears in an Antrim publication] lies a vast lake of boiling hot water which could soon be used to power your home or business. Antrim is literally sitting on a hot bed of energy - and plans are in the pipeline to tap into it. GT Energy - the leading company in the development of deep geothermal led district heating networks in Ireland and the UK - met with Antrim councillors last week to give a presentation today on the benefits of geothermal energy. Click here for full story

BEAMA has welcomed the Government’s commitment to support heat pumps. Kelly Butler, BEAMA’s marketing director, comments: “The BEAMA Domestic Heat Pump Association has only recently been set up, so the Government’s announcement so soon is great news for the industry. The Renewable Energy Strategy identifies that by 2020 heat pumps can play a key role in increasing the renewable heat share from 1% to 12%. BEAMA welcomes the Government’s commitment and clarification of applying the Renewable Heat Initiative (RHI) to all renewable heat installations from July 2009 up to, and beyond, RHI’s launch during April 2011. It’s bringing confidence to industry and customers.” Click here for full story

Cementation Skanska is installing 52m-deep foundation piles for low energy heating and cooling system. The UK’s deepest ever energy piles are being installed at NEO Bankside, a luxury residential development next to the Tate Modern in London. The 52m-deep, 1.5m-diameter rotary bored foundation piles are being installed by foundation contractor Cementation Skanska on the 229 apartment building, which is designed by architects Rogers Stirk Harbour and Partners. As well as supporting the building the piles are also an integral part of the development’s low energy heating and cooling system. Click here for full story

A renewable energy company based in Northamptonshire has been awarded a grant to help develop a new and clean way to heat buildings. Cool Planet, based in Higham Ferrers, has been awarded a £9,000 grant from the Sustainable Construction Innovation Network (iNet). The iNet is part-funded by East Midlands Development Agency. Cool Planet, says ground sourced energy, drawing energy from the earth, is the best way to heat buildings.
Click here for full story

Green Rock Energy will tap the hot water aquifers that lie deep beneath Perth to provide geothermal-powered air conditioning for the University of Western Australia, the first project of its type in Australia. After securing the geothermal exploration project for the metropolitan area, Perth-based Green Rock has struck a deal to provide geothermal-powered absorption chillers for UWA, replacing 5 megawatts of grid-based energy used to power conventional chillers. Click here for full story

A Gloucestershire based renewable energy company has been given the Royal seal of approval after installing their equipment at Highgrove. Ecovision, which has its head quarters in Uley, recently installed some of their latest eco-friendly technology at Prince Charles’ estate near Tetbury. The Prince has long been warning of the dangers of climate change and was keen to make the necessary changes to his home to conserve energy with air and ground source heat pumps.  Click here for full story

Waves around Australia and hot rocks beneath it have the capacity to power Australia into a clean energy future and provide thousands of new jobs, according to two new reports from WWF. Power to Change: Australia’s Wave Energy Future estimates the the wave energy industry will create 3,210 jobs by 2020, including jobs in local manufacturing and maintenance. By 2050 this figure is expected to grow to 14,380 jobs. The report was prepared with the assistance of the Carnegie CorporationÖ.. Meanwhile, Power to Change: Australia’s Geothermal Future, a report prepared in collaboration with the Australian Geothermal Energy Association (AGEA), predicted that more than 17,000 Australians could be employed in the geothermal energy industry by 2050. Click here for full story

A group of entrepreneurs has established an energy services company (ESCO) to fund the installation and maintenance of environmentally friendly systems to heat and cool new buildings throughout the UK and Europe and is currently in the market to raise £10 million in equity from investors. Greenrock Energy Limited (Greenrock) will manage the ESCO, which will finance the installation and operation of ground source heat pump systems (GSHP). GSHP systems use solar energy stored just below the earth’s surface to heat buildings, and can also cool buildings by transferring heat from buildings to the ground.  Click here for full story

Over 17,000 Australians could be employed in the geothermal energy industry by 2050, according to a report released today by WWF and the Australian Geothermal Energy Association (AGEA). ìWe have an opportunity to develop a massive, emissions-free energy source that can power Australia’s homes and businesses while growing jobs,î said Paul Toni, WWF Program Leader for Sustainable Development. ìWhen it comes to geothermal energy, we truly are the lucky country. The energy stored in hot rocks near the Earth’s surface in Australia is a thousand fold what we use each and every year.î Click here for full story

Britain's slow but steady march towards renewable energy took a step forward yesterday when plans were revealed for the UK's first power plant to produce electricity from geothermal energy - the Earth's own heat. The plant is a joint partnership between the Eden Project, the Cornish ecotourism attraction which features the world's largest greenhouse, and a geothermal power company, EGS Energy. It is hoped the plant will be built on the Eden site near St Austell, and will power the whole complex. Click here for full story

A new hospital unit opened in Norwich last week boasting the UK's largest ground source heat collection system. The new mental health unit at the Hellesden Hospital saw a 100kW system installed by local firm Econic, using 120 boreholes to draw up heat from the ground. The £9.4 million project installed on behalf of the Norfolk & Waveney Mental Health Foundation Trust has already been of huge interest to other hospital trusts, as the NHS seeks to move towards carbon neutrality by 2018. Click here for full story

UK Conservative Party Leader David Cameron last week highlighted the potential of deep geothermal technology and promised to provide "generous incentives" to kick-start the industry in Britain. A recent report by the Geothermal Research Programme estimated that deep geothermal energy could generate almost 10 percent of the UK's electricity needs. David stressed that Britain was "well-placed" to harness deep geothermal technology, and outlined the key benefits of doing so. These benefits include the creation new jobs in mining areas such as Cornwall, Yorkshire and the North East.  Click here for full story

At recent talk by Thomas Homer-Dixon at the Houses of Parliament I heard for the first time about a thrilling new technological fix for our twin doom of climate change and energy shortages: enhanced geo-thermal. As I understand it, this involves pumping water deep below the earth's surface to come up again as steam, and power turbines. (Ordinary geo-thermal involves simply tapping the hot water that's already there.) Click here for full story

The UK is sitting on a "vast resource of untapped energy", a Royal Academy of Engineering conference on the potential use of geothermal energy was told. By using ground source heat pumps, the energy can be transferred from hundreds of feet below the ground to the central heating system, while the same pump can also cool the building by taking heat out of the air in the summer. Click here for full story

Sheep shearers and tourists calling at the Innamincka Hotel in Australia's outback will soon have their beer chilled by energy from rocks 5km underground. The South Australian township (population 12) has been chosen by Brisbane-based company Geodynamics for a 1 megawatt pilot project that will tap hot underground granite to generate electricity. The company says the area could produce as much as 10,000MW of emission-free power, equivalent to 10 nuclear plants. Click here for full story

Sheep shearers and tourists calling at the Innamincka Hotel in Australia’s outback will soon have their beer chilled by energy from rocks 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) underground. The South Australian township (population 12) has been chosen by Brisbane-based Geodynamics Ltd. for a one-megawatt pilot project that will tap hot underground granite to generate electricity. The company says the area could produce as much as 10,000 megawatts of emission-free power, equivalent to 10 nuclear plants. Click here for full story

A deep breath is all that's needed to appreciate why Kusatsu is ideally suited to lead Japan's quest for new sources of renewable energy. As the steam rises from myriad holes in the ground, the air is filled with the unmistakable stench of sulphur. The pong is inescapable - it hangs on your clothes for days - but the volcanically heated water that creates it is the lifeblood of this spa town 90 miles northeast of Tokyo. As Japan seeks new ways to honour its Kyoto protocol commitments on CO2, Kusatsu's bathers are up in arms over plans to tap into rich reservoirs of geothermal energy, a move they say threatens their inalienable right to soak in the restorative waters of a natural spa. Click here for full story