GT Energy Current Projects
Ireland's First Geothermal Electricity Generation Plant
Newcastle, Co Dublin
GT Energy has received planning permission for the first deep geothermal electricity generation plant in Ireland and the UK. Significant progress has been made to date with a total spend of €2.1m incurred on the investigation, exploration and quantification of the geothermal resource.
The new power plant will be erected on a site in Newcastle, South County Dublin. It will be capable of generating up to 4 megawatts of electricity using geothermal energy, which will be fed into the national electricity grid.
It will deliver base load electricity to the national grid, the equivalent of providing 8,000 homes with its entire electricity needs.
It is expected drilling of the wells will commence in 2011 and the plant is scheduled to be operational and connected to the national grid in late 2012.
Low Carbon Community Challenge (LCCC)
Ballymena, Co.Antrim
Ballymena Borough Council and GT Energy succeeded in receiving grant aid to develop a localised district heating network project under the Low Carbon Community Challenge programme to demonstrate district heating networks, heat delivery and metering technology to the community of Ballymena.
This project is aimed at highlighting the benefits of carbon reduction and cost saving as well as creating awareness and public acceptance in the local community. District heating and metering technologies such as the ones proposed in this project are widely developed at community level across Europe (eg. Germany, France).
Geothermal Led District Heating Network
Ballymena, Co.Antrim
In 2008, GT Energy approached Ballymena Borough Council to investigate the potential for developing a deep geothermal led district heating network in the town of Ballymena. GT Energy have formed a strategic alliance with Ballymena Borough Council to collaborate on the feasibility of developing a district heating network for the town that will utilise deep geothermal, biomass and residual heat technologies to deliver a renewable heat solution to commercial, residential and public sector end-user buildings through a district heating network and promote the town as a ‘low carbon zone’.
Exploration Drilling
Newcastle, Co.Dublin
In 2006, GT Energy commenced its investigation into the potential for geothermal resources in Ireland. The project commenced by analysing the geothermal studies previously commissioned by Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI). A joint venture was established with Sandymark Construction Ltd to commence an exploration project in Greenogue Business Park, Co. Dublin.
Commencing in 2007, this project was developed as a three-phase exploration project. The first phase consisted of drilling two shallow boreholes to depths of 300 meters each. The second phase of the project commenced in March 2008 and involved drilling two deep geothermal boreholes to a depth of 1,400 meters each.
The project was completed at the end of October 2008 and hot water at suitable temperatures was achieved at 1,400 meters. Phase three commenced at the beginning of November 2008 which involved data collection for the project which included geo-logging, testing and mapping of the boreholes and subsequent report writing. The results from this project allowed GT Energy to fully determine the resource potential at Newcastle and in addition, map the geothermal potential of the Dublin basin.