Mike Popham, Chief Executive Officer at STRYDE

On the 5th of February, Project InnerSpace published its “Future of Geothermal in the UK” report, laying out a compelling and at times uncomfortable truth about the UK’s geothermal opportunity.

The report brings together the scale of the resource, the urgency of the challenge, and the very real blockers and enablers that will determine whether geothermal becomes a meaningful part of the UK’s heat and power future.

For me, the most striking thing about the UK’s geothermal opportunity isn’t the scale. It’s the irony. 

Because as Project InnerSpace sets out in the report, beneath the UK lies an estimated 3,900 gigawatts of geothermal heat - enough to meet the UK’s entire heating demand for more than 1,000 years. And with heating accounting for a major share of the UK’s total energy consumption, geothermal represents one of the biggest untapped opportunities to decarbonise energy use at scale.

And yet, geothermal remains a niche footnote in the national energy story. The report makes many important points, but what stands out most is how interconnected the barriers really are.

The UK doesn’t have a geology problem - it has a delivery problem. A mix of exploration risk, fragmented regulation, limited subsurface data, and missing financial mechanisms continues to hold progress back. In that context, exploration is not a “nice-to-have.” It is one of the key bridges between potential and bankability.

Geothermal could end the UK’s exposure to volatile energy markets – permanently:

One of the most valuable contributions of the report is how clearly it reframes geothermal. Not as an “alternative energy source,” but as something far more strategic: national heat infrastructure.

Geothermal heat networks, shallow geothermal systems, and subsurface storage could provide domestic, reliable heat that lowers bills, cuts imports, and strengthens energy security.

This matters because heating is where the UK remains structurally exposed - and geopolitically vulnerable. The UK can electrify everything… but it still needs heat. And geothermal is one of the only solutions that is local, constant, and non-intermittent.

The targets are conservative - and the timeline could be accelerated:

Another striking point in the report is this: UK geothermal ambition is not limited by technical feasibility.

Project InnerSpace argues that if key policies are enacted in the next one to three years, the UK could accelerate beyond the 2050 trajectory - or even raise targets beyond 15 gigawatts of heat and 1.5 to 2 gigawatts of electricity.

That is a rare thing in energy transition conversations: a credible pathway to go faster.

The UK’s biggest gap: no strategy, no targets, no runway:

The report doesn’t sugar-coat the UK’s current position. It highlights that the UK still lacks a dedicated geothermal strategy and national deployment targets, putting it behind European peers.

And the barriers are interconnected:

• unclear regulation
• slow permitting
• fragmented licensing
• limited data access
• no systematic risk-sharing
• insufficient public awareness

The key message is that none of these barriers are “fatal flaws.” They are fixable - but only if the UK decides geothermal is real.

A bottleneck that needs resolved, quickly:

If there’s one line in the report that policymakers should underline, it’s this: The barrier to a powerful geothermal industry is not natural resources or technology, but finance.

Geothermal is high-upside - but the early stage is unforgiving:

• drilling is expensive
• subsurface uncertainty is high
• insurance is hard to obtain
• risk is difficult to price
• and even successful wells may lack legal certainty to monetise discoveries

The report describes a textbook market failure: private actors carry the risk, while the wider system benefits from the reward. Without credible UK risk-sharing mechanisms, geothermal is likely to remain stuck in pilot mode - regardless of how often its potential is highlighted.

Exploration is the foundation: 

A consistent theme runs through the report: the UK lacks the data resolution, regulatory frameworks, and risk-sharing mechanisms required to move from conceptual resource estimates to bankable projects.

This is where exploration becomes central. Because geothermal success is not just about heat.

It’s about permeability and flow - and those are harder to predict than temperature. Project InnerSpace makes this point explicitly: permeability remains a greater challenge than temperature.

This means the UK needs to stop treating geothermal like a theoretical resource and start treating it like what it is: A subsurface exploration industry.

The report’s most actionable insight: seismic and integrated exploration plans:

The report is direct about the state of UK subsurface knowledge. UK onshore deep geology remains poorly understood compared to offshore, and the seismic picture is often dominated by sparse, legacy 2D lines.

Even where seismic exists, it frequently:

• isn’t located near centres of heat demand
• was acquired for oil and gas objectives
• is only partially integrated into geothermal workflows
• is poor quality and needs reprocessing

This is why the report calls for:

• targeted exploration drilling in priority basins
• reprocessed and newly acquired seismic optimised for geothermal reservoir characterisation
• standardised reporting and data-sharing frameworks
• scaled demonstration projects to validate long-term performance

In other words: geothermal doesn’t need more enthusiasm. It needs an exploration programme.

A national geothermal industry requires national coordination:

One of the strongest proposals in the report is the idea of coordinated exploration - borrowing from models that the oil and gas sector has used for decades.

Project InnerSpace suggests:

• a government-supported national programme for seismic acquisition and legacy data integration
• or collaboration across regional and local government agencies
• potentially using a multi-client acquisition model, where surveys covering multiple areas are acquired by a seismic company

This is exactly how uncertainty gets reduced at scale. Not by hoping individual developers solve it one project at a time.

The Seven Priority Policy Actions: a blueprint hiding in plain sight:

What’s refreshing about the report is that it doesn’t just describe the challenge - it lays out a practical plan. Project InnerSpace identifies seven priority policy actions:

1. Set a national geothermal strategy (with national geothermal goals)
2. Establish a “geothermal desk” to streamline licensing and permitting
3. Develop financial incentives
4. Leverage the government estate to stimulate geothermal demand
5. Advance skills and supply chains
6. Enhance data transparency and resource mapping
7. Advance public engagement and awareness

This isn’t a wish list. It’s a deployment plan.

Data transparency is not an academic issue - it’s a bankability issue:

The report makes a strong point about the UK’s subsurface data challenge: incomplete or inaccessible data constrains exploration.

And it proposes a clear fix:

• expand the BGS Geothermal Data Map into a public National Geothermal Atlas
• mandate open access to non-commercial well data
• coordinated by BGS, DESNZ, and GSNI

This matters because geothermal financing depends on confidence. And confidence depends on data quality, accessibility, and standardisation.

The future of UK geothermal is not “more pilots” - it’s de-risking at scale:

The report doesn’t argue for geothermal because it’s trendy. It argues for it because it’s structurally valuable - and because the UK can realistically build an industry if it clears the runway.

Project InnerSpace outlines what clearing that runway looks like:

• standardised site data and contracts
• published due diligence templates
• model heat contracts tied to zoning
• a confirmed geothermal CfD budget line
• workforce transition pathways
• procurement frameworks
• a funded and actively updated national atlas
• coordinated exploration and drilling programmes

This is how you turn “we have potential” into “we have projects.”

Final thought: the UK doesn’t need to discover geothermal - it needs to decide

The Project InnerSpace UK Geothermal Report reads like a challenge. Not to engineers - but to policymakers, investors, and regulators.

• The UK already has the resource.
• It already has the skills (especially from oil and gas).
• It already has demand.

What the UK lacks is the mechanism to move geothermal from the margins into the mainstream. And if the report makes anything clear, it’s this: exploration - and the high-quality subsurface data that comes with it - is one of the fastest ways to turn geothermal ambition into bankable delivery.

Original article   l   KeyFacts Energy: Geothermal news