East Anglia, UK, could be transformed into a super-sustainable food production powerhouse growing crops like tomatoes, watermelons and pineapples by drawing heat from deep underground.
That is the message from a geothermal business seeking farming partners across Norfolk and Suffolk who want to scale up to year-round crop cultivation, modelled on the success of the Netherlands.
Great Yarmouth-based company CeraPhi Energy says its "game-changing technology" could transform the east of England’s food production capacity in greenhouse "villages" warmed by plentiful supplies of cheap, clean heat from the earth’s crust.
Chief executive Karl Farrow, said: "Using heat as energy in its primary form, instead of using boilers to burn a fuel and generate that heat, could achieve a transformation in the way we produce and process our food.
“Why are there pineapples from South Africa and avocados from Mexico in our shops when we could be growing them ourselves? Why are we flying in tomatoes?"