Nearly every drilling rig in the world demonstrates the concept - drilling fluid is pumped down the well to lubricate the bit, retrieve chips or cement casing. The idea of pumping water down a well and using the hot return flow for something useful is not rocket science.
The Yorkshire plant is not (yet) a working model. They know that there is 110 degrees at 3 km depth - this would be known from the original drilling. CeraPhi say they expect to get 90 degrees out, but have not yet got working plant to prove it.
However the missing bits of information are important. What flow-rate do they expect? What will be the cost of pumping fluid in a 6 km round-trip? For how long will they maintain the initial output temperature? It seems likely to me that they will actually spend more enegy in diesel fuel for pumps than they will retrieve in warm water, and don't forget the capital cost of 3 km of insulated pipe, pumps and a distribution pipe network for the water. Remember in this case they are talking about district heating, not electricity generation. In time it's also likely the output temperature will steadily decrease.
By comparison the Winton geothermal plant in Qld was planned to use 85 degree artesian water flowing at 30 litres per second to produce about 100 kWe net electricity, from an existing well about 100 m deep (from memory). Even if the Yorkshire plant was used to generate electricity it would be comparable in scale to Winton - which is minuscle.
My point is that Winton is commercially viable (at small scale) because no well pumping is required. For CeraPhi projects commercial viability is very unlikely due to the high cost of getting relatively low-grade energy out of the ground. This is what happened with Geodynamics - they proved hot-dry-rock geothermal technology with a 1 MWe power plant for a month and then closed it down as it was never going to be commercially viable.
GRV Price at posting:
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