United Kingdom could do well with more geothermal energy

Each country wants to enter global clean energy race from the best possible position, and United Kingdom is no exception. The only real question is what renewable energy source should be given a priority? 

U.K. leads the world in marine renewable energy development (offshore wind and tidal) but there is one other renewable energy sector that could play major role in providing Britain with clean electricity – geothermal energy.

The 2012 Sinclair Knight Merz study said that U.K. has enough deep geothermal resources to provide 9.5GW of baseload electricity and over 100GW of geothermal heat, enough to meet entire UK space heating needs.

This study estimated that if U.K were to spend £11m a year to raise subsidies for geothermal energy projects this would be enough to support the rapid development of geothermal energy sector that would be capable to supply 20% of the UK's electricity needs.

U.K. has excellent infrastructure to start rapid geothermal energy development because of the traditional strength of British engineering skills. The UK's geothermal hotspots are said to be in Cornwall, the North East and the Lake District.

So far, the British government wasn't ready to ensure adequate subsidies for geothermal energy that would stimulate further investment into the industry but things may soon change because U.K. could be finally ready to give geothermal energy a real chance.

In May 2012 United Kingdom signed a geothermal deal with Iceland that could see geothermal power from Iceland supply clean electricity to the UK.

Geothermal energy could not only improve Britain's energy security and energy independence by decreasing the need for expensive foreign fuel import but could also deliver low carbon electricity and create new jobs.

The global geothermal industry is said to be worth £30 bn by 2020 and UK needs to make sure to be important part of this industry.