by Chris Rochelle, Geochemist - British Geological Survey
I write the first part of this blog on the return leg of a long-haul flight from Mexico where I have attended a meeting of the GEMex project - a €20M EU-Mexico collaboration which aims to enhance understanding of two geothermal systems east of Mexico City. Over 100 scientists from across Europe and Mexico spent 4 days visiting working geothermal operations, discussing their latest data, and trying to combine many different strands of research into coherent models for the two study sites.
Developing Los Humeros and Acoculco, and other systems, will help Mexico achieve its own target of 50% of its energy from ‘clean energy sources’ by 2050. The knowledge learned will also help in Europe’s geothermal development, which could provide an important contribution towards the European target of at least 20% of its total energy needs being via renewable sources by 2020, and 32% by 2030.
On returning to the UK I travelled to Cornwall where a large drilling rig is being erected at United Downs. Once assembled, it will spend some 7 months drilling two deep boreholes into the Carnmenellis Granite, one of which could be up to 4.5km deep (thereby becoming the deepest onshore borehole in the UK).
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