Southwest Geothermal Alliance

The Southwest Geothermal Alliance has been established to encourage and support the development of low carbon geothermal heat projects in the South West of the UK.

About

The Southwest Geothermal alliance (SGA) brings together wide experience and expertise across the full range of geothermal technologies and aims to assist central government, councils, landowners, businesses, local communities, enterprise schemes and others in assessing feasibility of, designing and delivering low carbon heating schemes.

The vision of the alliance is to increase the uptake of geothermal energy as a viable and affordable low carbon solution to meet the South West’s heating and cooling needs, whether it be for residential or commercial uses.

The South West of England is blessed with high quality geothermal resources of all types. The granites underlying Devon and Cornwall have elevated geothermal gradients and offer the potential for both heat and power production. Deep geothermal projects are being developed in Cornwall, but significant untapped shallow geothermal resources exist across the whole region and these are the focus of the Southwest Geothermal Alliance.

Ground source heat pumps harness the thermal energy close to the surface and can be applied anywhere. Intermediate depth boreholes offer the possibility of direct heating applications or supplying warm water to heat pump systems to improve efficiency, increase carbon savings and reduce costs.

Abandoned mine workings can also provide a practically limitless supply of warm water in some locations.

Please get in touch with us if you would like to learn more about how geothermal energy can help decarbonise your heating and cooling needs.

Find out more about geothermal and the technologies available by following the links below

Geothermal energy

Geothermal technologies

Who we are

GEOSCIENCE LTD

GeoScience Ltd has been active in geothermal research and industry since the 1980s and has provided consulting services to developers, investors, funding agencies and regulators all over the world on projects ranging from small direct heating applications to very high temperature, large scale powerplant developments. Until May 2020 GeoScience was a Delivery Partner on the United Downs Deep Geothermal Power project. The company also pioneered the application of ground source heat pumps in the UK for heating and cooling and has been designing and installing systems for 20 years, working on more than 2000 installations.

EGS ENERGY LIMITED

EGS Energy Ltd was established in 2008 and specialises in the development of engineered geothermal system heat and power plants, from resource assessment and site identification through to plant design, construction and operation. To date, the company has concentrated on the geothermal resource in Cornwall. It approached the Eden Project to assess the geothermal potential on its site in Bodelva and formed the special purpose vehicle Eden Geothermal Limited, which successfully raised £16.8m from public and private sources to drill its first well. The project is now in the development stage and drilling will commence in early 2021. The heat and power generated is expected to benefit the Eden Project as well as the local business and residential community.

EGS Energy has also undertaken initial feasibility studies on minewater heat schemes in Cornwall and consultancy internationally on a variety of different geothermal projects.

CARRAK CONSULTING

Carrak Consulting offers a range of geo-environmental services to land and mineral developers who are seeking practical and effective approaches to the responsible management of natural resources. The company specialises in the assessment of land affected by former mineral extraction and wastes, including mining-related ground instability and contamination, as well as the re-purposing and regeneration of abandoned mine sites across Cornwall.

CARBON ZERO CONSULTING

Carbon Zero Consulting has more than 20 years’ experience in the design, implementation and regulation of ground and water source heat pumps, thermal response testing (TRT), soil surveys, supervision of borehole drilling and testing, water sampling & analysis, supply and installation of monitoring and data logging equipment and river flow testing. It provides expertise and design for all borehole users and specialises in larger, commercial water supplies for high quality processes, heating and cooling.