Geothermal energy : the potential in the United Kingdom

The marked increase in energy prices in the mid-1970s
focused attention on the fact that conventional energy
sources are finite. This realisation led to an acceleration of investigations into the feasibility of using sources of energy other than fossil fuels and nuclear energy. Of these so called renewable forms of energy only geothermal resources are currently making a significant contribution to the world's energy needs.
The United Kingdom is not a region that is immediately
associated with geothermal energy. But the geothermal
gradient, which is similar to the world average, gives
temperatures of 60° to 75°C at depths of 2 km in many
areas, sufficient for a wide range of energy demands.
Furthermore, geothermal resources are being developed in
the Paris and Aquitaine basins in France, as well as in the
Pannonian Basin in Hungary, under somewhat similar
geological conditions to those that exist in the United
Kingdom.
In view of this, the Department of Energy, in collaboration
with the Commission of the European Communities,
invited the British Geological Survey to investigate the
geothermal potential of the UK.