Interview – Overcoming early struggles and achieving milestones with Eden Geothermal

Earlier this month, the Eden Geothermal project in Cornwall, UK announced its official start of operations. This is a historical milestone for the geothermal industry in UK with Eden Geothermal being the first operating deep geothermal heating plant in the UK in 37 years.

We have reported extensively on the progress of the Eden Geothermal project, from preliminary work in 2020, the drilling operations in 2021, and the well testing and heat network construction in 2022, all culminating in this moment. To hear about this journey and what is in store for Eden Geothermal, we spoke with Chief Executive Officer Augusta “Gus” Grand and Chief Activation Officer, Si Bellamy.

 

Congratulations on the huge milestone – the first operating geothermal heating plant in the UK in 37 years. How has the reception been so far?

Gus: The press reaction has been really good. We got on the front page of the Financial Times, which is a really big paper here for business and financial news. We’re really, really happy.

It’s exciting because it feels like a new beginning for us. In the UK, interest in geothermal is suddenly going up and up. And rather than talking to people and them going, “Geothermal? What is that?”, they now say, “Geothermal? Great idea.”

There has been a lot going on for geothermal in the UK lately, but it also took Eden Geothermal years to get to this point. What would you say have been the most important lessons that you have learned from this whole process, that might be useful in future geothermal projects?

Gus: Don’t be a startup in geothermal. When you’re working with the oil and gas industry – which we have to because they provide the drilling services and rigs – you are the least important project. What seems like a big amount of money for geothermal companies is actually a tiny amount in the context of the oil and gas industry. This makes it really hard in the initial stages of a geothermal project.

To get real progress in geothermal, what needs to happen in the UK and worldwide is that these oil companies have to be incentivized to take on geothermal projects.  We also have to look at the way that contracts with oil companies and drilling companies work, so that we can incentivize them to drill down quicker and cheaper.

If you’re talking to journalists or policymakers, I find it helpful to just say, “Can you please add geothermal to your list of renewable technologies?” Otherwise, we end up with articles and policies that talk about renewable energy but never mention geothermal. It’s typically not in the minds of policymakers.

For example, in the UK, we have very good grants for public sector decarbonization. It’s not that geothermal is excluded in these grants, but you have to be able to prove greenhouse gas savings within two years. This is just not possible with geothermal even considering just the time spent for permitting and planning. But I think that we are gradually getting past that phase and becoming more apparent in policymaker’s minds.

I would like geothermal to stop viewed as this kooky, little technology on the side. In some ways, I am very encouraged because I remember the days when they said solar and wind was so expensive and difficult. Now we see the price of solar power dropping because people have become really good at it. I feel very optimistic about geothermal but it has been really frustrating, as a startup, to progress one tiny step at a time.

The single-well design with coaxial flow for Eden Geothermal is quite unusual. What was the process for deciding to just have a single well?

Gus: Many years ago, both Eden Geothermal and the United Downs were searching for funding in the UK. Eventually, we both got the European funding but it was only so big. There was not quite enough money for us to drill two standard wells, so we designed a single well and it had to be for production.

At the very least, we had to have a very good outcome for the well and will get the Eden Project off gas, while demonstrating the industrial use of geothermal.

The other issue on whether we had to move on to a second well and a CHP plant partly has to do with UK policy and troubles with the grid connection. We have a grid commitment offer from the UK government for when we drill the second well, but the grid connection will not be available until December 2036, which is still a really long time from now.

 

You have already mentioned that there is a long permitting process for geothermal, which is the same situation in many countries. In terms of policy changes, what do you think be the most necessary to help accelerate the growth of geothermal?

Gus: First, they’ve got to fix the grid, but they’ve got to do that for everybody.

For the UK, we need to add an incentive – something like a geothermal development incentive or a renewable heat incentive. The other thing that is crucial is that geothermal has to be included in every policy that aims for renewable energy development.

One thing that encourages me is that the public sector and industry are also now pushing for geothermal. For instance, the National Health Service has done a feasibility study and discovered that over 100 of their facilities can tap into geothermal resources. Of course, this is very useful for hospitals. They are now joining us in asking the government for a geothermal policy.

 

The Growing Point nursery is quite central to the Eden Geothermal project. Has the nursery always been part of the plan? What is the ultimate objective of establishing the nursery?

Si: Yes, it has always been part of the plan, because it helps address the objectives of the European Regional Development Fund on generating greenhouse gas savings. Obviously, if the Eden Project can take itself off gas heating, then that already creates savings in terms of greenhouse gases. Generating heat is very important as a first step as it displaces tons of CO2 emissions per year.

Unlike other geothermal sites where similar efforts come many years down the line, we’ve made sure that the Growing Point nursery is there are ready to heat as an operational nursery right from the start.  By October, we will then be activating the mains into the Biomes and start heating those as well.

Fundamentally, the nursery has always been part of the plan, not just to generate greenhouse gas savings, but also to demonstrate the importance of renewable heat sources for energy-intensive industries.

Is there a specific technology startup that you’re looking forward to and will benefit Eden Geothermal?

Gus: Yes, I have had a lot of very interesting conversations with drilling engineers about new drilling technologies that could be game-changers. I think that any innovative technology that can introduce improvements in terms of speed of drilling can really revolutionize the industry.

The innovations in engineering are very exciting. We will be in heaven if plasma drilling turns out to be successful and feasible. There is a lot that can be done even with just really good planning and execution. For example, doing backfilling, so rather than doing one mile at a time and one cementing job at a time, you can have four wells going on at once. This helps save an immense amount of time by having the crews on site at once. This would save so much on rig and mobilization costs.

Si: One of the things that we focus now is the importance of control systems, and learning from others in the geothermal industry about how deep networks can be adapted and maintained so that flow and temperature can be maximized. That’s a really important technical point that is inspiring the industry to come up with really cost-effective heat exchangers and air handling units that can access and deliver heat up to a volume as safely and efficiently as possible.

An analogy I like to use is that there’s no point in having a brand new boiler in your house if all the pipe work and radiators are really poor. You have to do the whole system if you want to maximize the output of the resource and return on the investment.

Gus: One of the uses we considered for the site during the planning and funding phase was a distiller. This will demonstrate another good industrial use of geothermal heat in the UK. The way that has been designed with heat exchangers that can receive both the very hot side from the main and the cold side. This way, the heat exchanger can be a very good demand balancer, particularly during the summer when geothermal heating is not needed in the greenhouses. Even over the winter, the demand for heating can fluctuate. By having a distillery as part of the system, we can maximize the use of the geothermal heat.

 

What is the future for Eden Geothermal? Are you planning on drilling on more wells or other applications of geothermal heat?

Gus: We are planning to maximize the use of the site. Hopefully, we will have more wells in the Eden site in the future, but we will have to build the business case for those.

Si: We have long standing agreements with hotels in the Eden site who are absolutely appropriate off-takers of geothermal heating. We also intend to use geothermal heat to increase people’s access to wellness. We all know the importance of spending time in nature, and the health benefits of bathing in warm springs. Geothermal-heated pools and hotels are things that we would really love to have over the next three to five years.

Gus: My dream is a hot wave surf. So now, there are cold surfs in lakes and pools. I think one that is a little bit warmer will be absolutely terrific.

What is your outlook for the future of geothermal in the UK and globally?

Gus: For the UK, it’s wide open. We desperately need scalable heating solutions for large parts of the UK – for industry, institutions, universities, factories, schools, and leisure centres. We think that there is an absolutely enormous market just coming down the road from here.

Netherlands is looking at having 23% of their heating to come from geothermal by 205. In the UK, why can’t we be thinking of a number like that? Maybe not 25% by 2050 because we were a few years behind in coming up with a strategy, but maybe we can reach 25% by 2055.

Globally, I think it’s huge. The Inflation Reduction Act in the U.S. is absolutely amazing and is bringing so much investment into the space. All the innovative efforts out there like Eavor Technology, Quaise, Berkshire Hathaway, Utah FORGE – if they can manage to make EGS systems viable, then we will all be happy. I think we will have more of geothermal everywhere soon.

Si: From my perspective, I think this is where support needs to be in terms of policy. In terms of aspirations and ambitions, I think all nations including the UK seek geothermal to be a part of their respective net zero policies. I think that the only way to can get industry support, as mentioned earlier, is through incentivization. You have to have a policy providing the means to get there, and then industry leaders will adapt and new businesses will start around that.

If we want this to happen, we can be a demonstrator, together with other members of our team, to show what’s possible, but you’re not going to make an impact unless this is done at scale. There really needs to be a national policy for incentivization, which improves the economics to make geothermal worth the risk and the investment.

 

Eden Geothermal made quite a few headlines during COP26 a few years ago. Are there any plans for a similar exhibition this year or the next?

Si: I think the main this is that we’re going to get this to work. We’re going to demonstrate and exploit the geothermal resource at the Eden site to its fullest potential. And rather than telling people what we’re going to do, now is the moment to tell the people what we are doing, whether it’s on COP28 or COP38.