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Construction site of new Newcastle University buildings which will be carbon neutral. Among other energy efficient measures, they will have
space heating using geothermal heat from a borehole that is being drilled 6000 feet beneath the site. Photograph: Hugh Macknight/PA |
The UK could meet a fifth of its power needs – the equivalent of nine nuclear power stations – by exploiting geothermal power, a new report into the technology has found.
But the report found that the current subsidy regime does not provide sufficient incentive to develop the technology in the UK - even as Charles Hendry, minister of state at the Department of Energy and Climate Change, flew to Iceland on Wednesday afternoon to discuss a possible new interconnector that could be used to import geothermal electricity from there.