Western Morning News (Saturday)
Go-ahead for geothermal rum distillery
APIONEERING £5million research centre linked to plans for a geothermal rum distillery biome has been given the green light in Cornwall.
The team behind a scheme to build the UK’s first rum distillery and cask maturation research facility directly connected into a deep geothermal power plant are celebrating receiving outline planning permission from Cornwall Council.
The permission, with conditions attached, is for Celsius – the Sustainable Distillery Research Centre – which will be built on the hard edge of the former United Downs landfill site, next to where Geothermal Energy Ltd (GEL) will be producing zero carbon, renewable power in 2022.
Waste heat will be piped from GEL’s deep geothermal energy plant directly into the Celsius centre, where pioneering technology, being developed by the Cornish Geothermal Distillery Company(CGDC) and engineers Buro Happold, will boost its temperature using innovative heat pump technology.
This will operate a copper still for distilling rum and a facility to “geothermally” mature the drink in casks, creating – say the developers – the template for one of the most sustainable carbon neutral distillery projects in the UK.
The Celsius centre will initially create six full-time distillery-related and research jobs including master blenders and coopers (barrel makers and restorers) with an aim to create associated apprenticeships, within a simple wooden clad, sedumroofed eco-building.
The Celsius project is the evolution of two and a half years’ work and is already backed by the UK Government’s Green Distilleries Competition, in which it won £75,000, the highest single award in
Phase 1.
Celsius is now entering
Phase 2 of the competition, with the green technologies it is developing seen as key to the success of future projects not just in the distillery sector but with application for enterprises to use waste heat from other industrial processes too.
For Matt Clifford, CGDC founder, the announcement marks a vote of confidence from Cornwall Council which has invested in the United Downs Deep Geothermal Energy Plant and said it wishes to see a hub of geothermal-related enterprise on land it owns surrounding the GEL site.
“This is the most significant milestone our project has achieved and it makes Celsius very real,” said Mr Clifford. “The concept and principle of the project is now formally established and has the official go ahead to proceed.
“The conditions we must meet before we get to full planning consent are exactly what we expected to be in place – and we look forward to working closely with Cornwall Council, the Environment Agency and other organisations whose expertise and knowledge is crucial to development of this unusual site.
“We are deeply grateful for this support from Cornwall Council, the UK Government and many other organisations and individuals including our brilliant CGDC team and partners.
“After two and a half years, we have permission - subject to full planning permission - to build a beautiful, sustainable Celsius dedicated research facility, working symbiotically with our friends and neighbours at the UK’s first deep geothermal power plant.”