The partners want to establish an engineered geothermal system power plant, which will supply power to Eden from an old clay quarry at Bodelva, near St Austell, Cornwall. But they say that they have ambitious plans far beyond this aim.

“The partners believe that with the vast quantity of geothermal energy stored in the rocks below Cornwall, the county could eventually provide up to 10% of the UK's entire electricity requirements,” they said in a statement.

Penzance