Proceedings World Geothermal Congress 2010 Bali, Indonesia, 25-29 April 2010 Engineered Geothermal Program in the UK R. Baria1, G. MacPherson-Grant1, J. Baumgaertner2, A. Jupe3 and J. Cowles3 1EGS Energy UK Ltd. Penzance, Cornwall, TR18 4SL UK, 2BESTEC GmbH, Landau, D-76829 Germany, 3altcom Limited, Penzance, Cornwall, TR18 4SL UK
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[email protected] Keywords: Keywords: Engineered Geothermal System Geothermal energy is generally categorised as a “new (EGS), Geothermal Energy and UK EGS resource. renewable energy” but that is not the case in the short to medium term. Depending on the type of geothermal ABSTRACT resource, it may take anything up to 20,000 years to recover naturally the energy extracted from an exhausted Recent uncertainty in the supply of energy and the effect of Engineered Geothermal System. global warming raised a call for a review of the potential of geothermal energy in the US. A study was commissioned Geothermal energy has been used by people since the dawn by the US DoE via Massachusetts Institute of Technology. of civilisation in many parts of the world for bathing and The study concluded that if Enhanced Geothermal System washing clothes from hot springs, an expression of technology was pursued seriously then it was anticipated geothermal energy on the surface, Cataldi, et al., (1999). that something like 11,000GWe could be generated by Similarly, when geothermal energy is mentioned, the 2050. general public perception is that it is found in places such as New Zealand, Iceland, etc.