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  • 30/01/2024
Transcript
00:00 Well we've got a long history of mine working. There are a hundred former pits across the west
00:05 of England and particularly in the north east Somerset area of course. I know that I live near
00:09 Pensford but people will remember that there have been mine workings in places like Bishop Sutton,
00:14 you come down further to Poulton, Rivington and Kilminsden here and that's quite recently some
00:22 of that, you know since the 1970s they've only relatively recently closed down. But while they
00:28 are a fantastic thing, they had a great tradition, there's great pride, they were also backbreaking
00:33 and tough but what I'm excited about is that there's now this potential because technology
00:38 has moved on to use the water that's flooded those former mines right across the region and
00:43 north east Somerset in particular which has warmed up and is full of energy and to get that energy
00:49 out and heating homes, heating schools, heating hospitals not just in a more sustainable way but
00:55 actually a more cost-effective way and we've just heard today about the Hinkley Sea nuclear power
00:59 reactor building program being much more expensive than people thought. That energy means that energy
01:05 will be very expensive, it won't be cheap, it'll be in some way sustainable but not totally but it
01:09 won't be cheap and I believe that getting this heat out of mines will not only be the sustainable
01:14 and green thing to do but actually a very cost-effective thing to do that will provide
01:18 more affordable energy for people. So it's very exciting and potentially thousands of individuals
01:24 and homes right across the west of England but particularly in north east Somerset
01:27 will benefit from that and that's why we've got £1.5 million now to start these studies,
01:34 to start drilling some boreholes so that we can turn that potential into something
01:38 that is reality in the future.

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