Deep geothermal energy in Scotland

The Scottish Government, Energy and Climate Change Directorate has announced it wishes to commission research into the potential for deep geothermal energy in Scotland.

Geothermal energy has been identified as particularly important emerging technology for Scotland and may play a significant role in our energy future alongside other renewable systems. They are therefore commissioning a study into deep geothermal energy potential to identify the next steps that might be nedded to develop the deep geothermal energy under Scotland.

Closing date for tenders is 24th November and the full details are available from the Public Contracts Scotland website.

IEA report on geothermal energy

STOCKHOLM, 14 June 2011 – A report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) states they believe there is potential to achieve at least a tenfold increase in the global production of heat and electricity from geothermal energy between now and 2050.

They theorise that to ensure the global energy mix keeps the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere below 450 parts per million – a key threshold in limiting global temperature increase to 2°C, agreed to at the UN climate change talks in Cancun in 2010 – actions that encourage the development of untapped geothermal resources and new technologies must be adopted.

They speculate geothermal energy could account for around 3.5% of annual global electricity production and 3.9% of energy for heat (excluding ground source heat pumps which the report did not consider) by 2050 – a substantial increase from current levels of 0.3% and 0.2%, respectively.

Full details here…