A geothermal drilling site and power station have been granted planning permission.

Cornwall Council’s strategic planning committee approved the development for a site near Truro.

Geothermal Engineering Limited (GEL), which has already carried out testing and is set to generate power at a site in United Downs, had applied for permission to drill two geothermal wells and build a power station at the new site at Penhallow.

Ryan Law, director of GEL, told the committee there was a need to develop more geothermal power plants “to mitigate the climate emergency and reduce energy costs” and said that it was “an opportunity unique to Cornwall”. He said the development of a test site at United Downs had helped to put Cornwall on the map in being at the forefront of geothermal energy in the UK. The new site at Penhallow, he said, had been the result of two years of site locating work and £50 million of investment.

Dr Law said the site would help to generate more renewable energy as well as create high-skilled, high-paid jobs for the local area and help boost the local economy. In response to questions Dr Law said that while United Downs had not generated energy back into the National Grid this had been due to delays caused by the Covid pandemic and it had run tests which showed it can generate power and that a power station to harness that energy and feed it into the grid was expected to be built this year.