The Kirby Misperton KM8 well site of Third Energy in North Yorkshire, UK had previously been a highly controversial site intended for a fracking project. The site was shut down after years of protests, but is now getting a new lease in life as the demonstration site of the pioneering geothermal technology of CeraPhi Energy.

CeraPhi Energy is developing technology that can harness geothermal energy from non-productive wells, whether they were drilled originally for geothermal or oil and gas. The North Yorkshire site has been selected by the company for a demonstrator project that will prove the commerciality of the CeraPhiWell™ technology.

More details on this demonstrator project had been touched upon during our recent interview with Andy Wood, CeraPhi’s Subsurface Manager.

CeraPhi’s technology uses a coaxial closed-loop system that extracts no fluid from the subsurface. “We are not touching the geology – sending water down the outside of the tubes to collect the heat before bringing the water up the tubing to the surface where the heat is then processed,” says CeraPhi CEO Karl Farrow.

CeraPhi also provided some updates on the results of the tests so far – a temperature of 110 °C has been measured at the bottom of the KM8 well at 3000 meters depth. Heat from the bottom of the well will then be transferred to the surface, where a temperate of 90 °C is expected. This will be enough to supply heat to 400 homes for about 40 years. The heat can also be used for agricultural facilities, distilleries, anaerobic digesters, or the local swimming pool.

Mending a community

Third Energy director Steve Mason, ironically a member of the Frack Free Unit back in 2019, said that about 80% of the community supports the geothermal project according to a poll done by the Ryedale District Council. “How I’ve ended up sitting 50 yards from the fracking well site I was opposing still seems quite surreal,” Mason remarked.

This has been a massive change in response to the KM8 project, which was the site of near-daily anti-fracking protests for more than a year. With its potential to be converted to a facility for generating green heating, the change of direction has been described as something that has “mended the community” in Ryedale.