Cheshire East secures £200k to explore geothermal

CHESHIRE East Council has been awarded £200,000 by the Government to explore the potential of a geothermal energy source under Crewe.

It wants to use a 2.5-acre site close to Bentley’s factory at Leighton West to harness enough heat for every house in Cheshire East from reserves of hot water deep beneath ground.

The council said the award is the biggest yet for geothermal exploration.

Council leader Michael Jones said: “This is fantastic news and we can now begin to undertake further research and understand this incredible energy resource deep beneath the ground here in Cheshire East.

“This council is committed to tackling energy poverty as well as reducing our carbon emissions, so this may be the right solution for the borough. Low-carbon technologies, such as geothermal, are the way forward and will enable local energy solutions and self-sufficiency.

“The grant will be used to verify the benefits of drilling down as far as 5km to extract water at temperatures in excess of 100 degrees centigrade. If this is indeed successful, we could be looking at an opportunity to heat new homes in the area with this new technology as well as using heat exchange technology to create electricity.”

Last month the council ruled out fracking and said it wanted to focus on geothermal.