Bulk material handling equipment could be required to help construct the new geothermal plant in Cornwall.
The new facility will be developed by Geothermal Engineering and could generate 55MW of heat and 10MW of electricity when it becomes fully operational in 2013.
The geothermal plant will pump water onto hot rocks 4.5km underground before siphoning it back up as a heat resource or to power turbines for electricity.
Professor Frances Wall, head of an engineering and mathematics department at the University of Exeter, claimed geothermal energy could become vital in the future.
She said: "Geothermal has significant potential in the UK and the region stands to benefit significantly from this development in terms of being at the forefront of geothermal exploration."
Developers could use bulk material handling equipment to clear the vast amounts of excess rock it will remove during the construction of the site.
Typical Guttridge equipment used in the geothermal industry includes; elevators – bucket elevators – valves
