{"id":428663,"date":"2026-02-28T12:31:01","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T11:31:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=428663"},"modified":"2026-02-28T12:31:03","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T11:31:03","slug":"three-times-the-cost-causes-earthquakes-roll-on-the-green-power-revolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=428663","title":{"rendered":"Three Times the Cost, Causes Earthquakes\u2013Roll on the Green Power\u00a0Revolution!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Paul Homewood<\/p>\n\n\n\n

h\/t Ian Magness<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More naive reporting from Matt Oliver:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The promise of underground riches is <\/em>nothing new in Cornwall<\/em><\/a>. But on Thursday, the region will plumb new depths in the quest to harness Britain\u2019s natural resources.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the first time, the United Downs deep geothermal power plant will start generating 24\/7 electricity at a site near Redruth.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With an output of around three megawatts, enough to power roughly 10,000 homes, the plant cannot exactly be described as game-changing.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet experts believe it will help pave the way for similar projects across Britain aimed at tapping into the vast thermal resources below our feet.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The United Downs project, developed by Geothermal Engineering Ltd (GEL), will draw water at temperatures of around 190C from underground reservoirs that sit approximately five kilometres beneath the surface.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It takes advantage of a natural fault line using two wells, one that draws water up and one that pumps it back into the granite rock formations. Water that is brought above ground is run through a heat exchanger which uses another liquid with a lower boiling point to make steam and drive a turbine.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result is power that <\/em>is nearly always on<\/em><\/a> \u2013 whatever the weather \u2013 save for short maintenance periods, says Ryan Law, the chief executive of GEL.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOnce you have done your drilling and the rest of it, the plant then runs 24\/7 for about 96pc of the year,\u201d he says.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In renewable energy, these kinds of numbers are virtually unheard of. Utility-scale solar tends to only push 25pc of the year while wind farms tend to land somewhere between 20pc and 40pc.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full story here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not sure who these \u201cexperts\u201d are. They would not be paid by GEL, by some chance?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article also contains serious errors, not least the claim that solar power works at 25% efficiency. The true number is half that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bot the biggest error is this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Matt Oliver obviously does not realise that \u00a3119\/MWh is at 2012 prices! The current strike price is \u00a3170.50\/MWh, three times the price of gas power:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Economically attractive, he says! What a joke. It is only viable because of the \u00a33 million a year CfD subsidy plus that \u00a31.8 million bung. And all for a miniscule contribution to UK electricity supply. The 3 MW quoted might generate 25,000 MWh a year, compared to total UK demand of 300,000,000 MWh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it gets much worse! The process has been causing earth tremors, as Oliver reports:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like fracking, however, this kind of drilling can cause unnerving mini-earthquakes.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Britain, ministers effectively outlawed fracking for oil and gas when they limited operations that create tremors of more than a 0.5 magnitude.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are no such rules for geothermal, even though it has caused mini-tremors that were three times more powerful than this, with the industry instead regulated based on its surface vibrations. Law argues that this is more sensible because it measures the actual effects above ground.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it\u2019s OK to have earthquakes three times as powerful as from fracking, because geothermal is \u201cgood\u201d and fracking \u201cbad\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FOOTNOTE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have left comments for Matt Oliver, pointing out his CfD strike price error, but so far, the article still has not been corrected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Economically attractive, he says! What a joke. It is only viable because of the \u00a33 million a year CfD subsidy plus that \u00a31.8 million bung. And all for a miniscule contribution to UK electricity supply. The 3 MW quoted might generate 25,000 MWh a year, compared to total UK demand of 300,000,000 MWh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":428672,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691819627,691834578,691840639,691831484,691825668,691841675,691819365],"class_list":{"0":"post-428663","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-clean-energy","9":"tag-contract-for-difference-cfd","10":"tag-cornwall","11":"tag-energy-secretary-ed-miliband","12":"tag-geothermal-energy","13":"tag-geothermal-engineering-ltd-gel","14":"tag-uk-electricity","16":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0Geothermal-Power-Plant.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1NvV","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":378600,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=378600","url_meta":{"origin":428663,"position":0},"title":"Net zero will not bring electricity prices down, says Centrica\u00a0boss","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"16\/05\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The boss of Centrica, Chris O\u2019Shea, has weighed in on the debate about whether renewables will bring down electricity costs.","rel":"","context":"In \"Chris O\u2019Shea\"","block_context":{"text":"Chris O\u2019Shea","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=chris-oshea"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/0net-zero-istock-1190148959.jpg?fit=1200%2C761&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/0net-zero-istock-1190148959.jpg?fit=1200%2C761&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/0net-zero-istock-1190148959.jpg?fit=1200%2C761&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/0net-zero-istock-1190148959.jpg?fit=1200%2C761&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/0net-zero-istock-1190148959.jpg?fit=1200%2C761&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":365194,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=365194","url_meta":{"origin":428663,"position":1},"title":"First Hydrogen CfDs\u00a0Awarded","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"06\/02\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The first three CfDs have been announced for the Hydrogen Allocation Round 1.","rel":"","context":"In \"CFDs\"","block_context":{"text":"CFDs","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=cfds"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/0AdobeStock_210211160.jpeg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/0AdobeStock_210211160.jpeg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/0AdobeStock_210211160.jpeg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/0AdobeStock_210211160.jpeg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/0AdobeStock_210211160.jpeg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":373587,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=373587","url_meta":{"origin":428663,"position":2},"title":"New Strike Prices Confirm Offshore Wind Is Much Dearer Than\u00a0Gas","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"04\/04\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Of particular interest are the contracts offered in last summer\u2019s AR6 round. 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According to a new analysis, the taxpayer could be half-a-billion pounds worse off due to a recently revealed delay at just one wind farm The Government has urged developers to \u201cact fairly\u201d after some of the UK\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/0image-11.png?fit=1024%2C448&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/0image-11.png?fit=1024%2C448&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/0image-11.png?fit=1024%2C448&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/0image-11.png?fit=1024%2C448&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":363795,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=363795","url_meta":{"origin":428663,"position":5},"title":"Record \u00a32.4 Billion in CfD Subsidies Paid Out in 2024","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"29\/01\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Hot on the heels of the record payments made under the Feed-in-Tariff scheme in the year to end March 2024, the data is now available for subsidies paid under the Contract for Difference Scheme (CfDs) in calendar year 2024. The data comes from the Low Carbon Contract Company (LCCC). The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Contract for Difference Scheme (CfDs)\"","block_context":{"text":"Contract for Difference Scheme (CfDs)","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=contract-for-difference-scheme-cfds"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/0Untitled-design.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/0Untitled-design.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/0Untitled-design.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/0Untitled-design.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/0Untitled-design.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=428663"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":428674,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428663\/revisions\/428674"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/428672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=428663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=428663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=428663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}