Cornish Geothermal: Hello from Dr Nicola Langdon

Dydh da! Ow hanow yw Nicola and I’m a postdoctoral researcher in the School of Law, Criminology and Government with a background in International Relations. I have always been interested in issues of social justice, sustainability, as well as the power of language, which has led to a continued research focus on the relationship between the media, public and policy spheres. In 2018 I was awarded my PhD, with a thesis that examined the UK media’s moral framing of conflictRead more

Cornish Geothermal: Talking about United Downs research at EGU

Every year, Vienna in Austria hosts the second biggest meeting of geologists and geoscientists in the world, called the European Geoscience Union (or EGU) General Assembly. During the week of the 7th to 12th of April 2019, the meeting was a melting pot of over 16,000 scientists and researchers from 113 countries across Europe and the world and two of our researchers were lucky enough to go. Dr Hazel Gibson and Francesca Tirotto both presented some initial results at the meetingRead more

Cornish Geothermal: Hello from Dr Hazel Gibson

Hi! My name is Hazel and I’m a Research Fellow on the United Downs Deep Geothermal Project. My particular job title is Research Fellow in Public Understanding of Geothermal Power, which is right up my street as a geologist who studies public engagement, science communication and geoscience cognition. I started out my career working as an Engineering Geologist in Australia, helping to build a major motorway and bridge upgrade just outside of Brisbane in Queensland. Then I decided to changeRead more

Cornish Geothermal: Meet GEL, the technical and commercial partners

Alongside our research here at the Sustainable Earth Institute, there is also a team working on the technical and commercial side of the United Downs project, on site in Cornwall. Here is a quick word from them to introduce themselves: The three year United Downs Deep Geothermal Power (UDDGP) project is being undertaken by Geothermal Engineering Limited (GEL) to explore the deep geothermal resources beneath Cornwall, with financial support from the European Regional Development Fund (£10.6m), Cornwall Council (£2.4m) andRead more

Hot Topic 1: Why communicate about Enhanced Geothermal Systems?

As a part of the research being done by the team here at the Sustainable Earth Institute about the Deep Geothermal project at United Downs, we think it is really important to share as much as we can what we are doing with anyone who is interested. With this in mind we are planning a series of short summaries that look at different aspects of our research, which we are calling ‘Hot Topics’! The first of these Hot Topics focusesRead more

Cornish Geothermal: Hello from Professor Iain Stewart

I went down to Cornwall once and they put me in a box. An air-tight box. In the Eden Project. For two days. Inside, researchers took the oxygen content down from 21% to 12%, and then waited to see if a glass container packed with high-photosynthesising plants could take in the carbon dioxide from my breathing and re-establish normal oxygen levels. It nearly worked – well, at least I lived – but the point is that being vitally dependent onRead more