Local power generation can overcome renewable nimbys

Local ownership of distributed power generation is the key to overcoming nimby objections to renewable energy schemes, says the head of a company looking to establish a geothermal plant in rural Cornwall.

“Planning is the big unknown in renewables,” Ryan Law, founder of Geothermal Engineering Ltd (GEL) told BusinessGreen.com. “Communities object to mega-projects which supply the whole country, but if people realise they can have a direct stake in local schemes I think this is the key to it.”

GEL is currently awaiting the results of its planning application filed on 8 March for a geothermal plant in Carharrack, near Redruth in Cornwall. The company has spent two years courting Cornwall County Council and Law ran a two-day local surgery in Carharrack village hall to present the scheme and answer local residents’ questions.

“Geothermal is Cornwall’s resource, not a project dumped on the county from outside,” said Law.

Planning applications for windfarms have been greeted with growing opposition in the county.

GEL should know by the end of June if it has been successful.

Geothermal power won’t be significant in terms of its feed-in to the UK-wide electricity grid, says Law, but it will in terms of replacing natural gas as the main source of heating domestic and business premises.

For example, the plant GEL is proposing for Carharrack will generate just 10MW, but it will also produce 50MW of heat, which can be used to heat local housing and businesses on the nearby industrial estate.

“The next five years needs to see a major mind-change in the UK to establish distributed heating,” said Law.

Geothermal power is growing its share of the world’s installed energy generating capacity. According to the Geothermal Energy Association (GEA) in the US, there is now over 10,000MW of installed capacity in 94 countries worldwide.

The US leads in geothermal energy with 3,086MW capacity from 77 plants. Iceland gets 25 percent of its electricity and 90 percent of its heating from geothermal resources

In Europe, Germany has 150 geothermal projects which will produce 280MW by 2020 according to the European Commission, and Turkey aims to produce 550MW by 2013.