Last week, a friend of mine who lives in England, sent me a link to this outrageous park in Cornwall, called the Eden Project. It’s basically an elaborate construction of domes (Yes, I’ve fallen in love with dome sturctures) transformed into gigantic greenhouses that sustain a global collection of plants; some, very peculiar. It is a multi-purpose park that holds gardening and educational courses for all ages to music festivals, theatre productions, art exhibits, etc.
These biomes sit on a foundation of granite. Eden’s plan is to build the UK’s first geo-thermal power plant utilizing the heat from the radioactive decay in the granite, deep inside the earth’s crust. Although, drilling a hole 3 miles deep into the Earth must have an outrageous cost, the park experts are estimating that Eden, itself will need only a quarter of the green power generated. The other three-quarters would feed back into the local community/National grid and possibly, supplying 10% of England’s future electricity needs.
I wasn’t able to find information about the actual construction of the biomes or how they maintain suitable temperatures for plants and people. And having no knowledge of power generation, I don’t know if there is even a need for thermal energy storage in such a park that’s powered geo-thermally. But I’m sure the power needs for Eden are immense and they seem to be headed in the right direction.
http://rgees.com/index.php
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