City-wide District Heat Network powered by Deep Geothermal in Stoke-on-Trent (UK)

Abstract

As any other European country, the United Kingdom faces the energy trilemma of cost, security of supply and carbon intensity of energy.
There are a limited number of city-wide district heat networks in the United Kingdom, i.e. less than 2% of market penetration; most are powered by natural gas combined heat and power plants or energy from waste plants. There are currently strong national drivers for decarbonising heat and the Department of Energy and Climate Change is supporting the development of district heat networks.
Stoke-on-Trent City Council is developing a city-wide deep geothermal district heat network, which is recognised as the largest low carbon heat network development in the UK.
There is only one small scale deep geothermal heat network in the UK, located on the south coast at Southampton, which was developed in the 1980s as a pilot and research project. The capital outlay required for such systems made them difficult to compete against cheap natural gas extracted in the North Sea.
Today the situation is changing, given North Sea natural gas is not as abundant and as economically viable to exploit, resulting in a large amount of natural gas being imported.
In a highly competitive liberal energy market, Stoke-on-Trent City Council is developing a Public Private Partnership scheme to enable a deep geothermal scheme to be delivered on a commercial basis in an environment where heat is yet to be regulated.
This paper will provide an overview of the mechanisms used by Stoke-on-Trent City Council to develop, and more importantly to de-risk such intensive upfront capital deep geothermal schemes.