Full steam ahead for Cornwall’s geothermal energy project

Team behind project at United Downs site near Redruth say power plant will be producing electricity and heat by next year

It has taken a decade of hard graft - and some bold, imaginative thinking - but a plume of steam finally exploded into the clear Cornish air, a signal of what is being heralded as a breakthrough for an energy project that taps into the hot rocks of the far south-west of Britain.

The blast of steam at the United Downs site near Redruth, once a global mining capital, is being billed as proof that deep geothermal power can be part of the solution to the UK's search for alternative sources of energy.