News

TESTING PHASE – Second round
The second round of testing started a week later than anticipated. We were setting up on Monday 28th September and started the actual flow test the day after. The flow testing went well and, although there was a small amount of micro-seismicity, it was very deep and did not reach the surface. Work then resumed on Wednesday 30th and similar results to the day before were achieved. During late morning, the micro-seismicity altered and there as a 1.6Ml event at over 5km depth. This was felt and heard at surface by many local residents. As per our protocol/ regulations, the flow of water was immediately reduced (it is important to reduce the flow slowly and not just switch it off) and then stopped. GEL decided not to carry out any testing on Thursday 1st October to allow the seismicity and geomechanics specialists time to analyse the activities of the day before and to plan the final day of testing. The final morning of testing took place on Friday 2nd October, which was successfully carried out.

UNDERGROUND
The zone we are using for the UDDGP geothermal reservoir is made up mainly of granitic rock that has been broken and altered by the formation of the fault (our target) which was formed at least 60 million year ago. The aim is to use the gaps between the rock (fractures) to circulate water to extract the heat. Rock fractures in these zones can be blocked up with minerals and sediments, so when a geothermal project initially tests the water flow, some of these minerals and sediments can get washed away allowing more water to flow through. Sometimes the rock will move slightly too, resulting in micro-seismicity. Evidence from similar types of geothermal systems across Europe show that once the geothermal system is operational the micro-seismicity decreases and stops over time. Over 98% of geothermal micro-seismicity is not felt at the surface during the testing phase.

GEOTHERMAL REGULATIONS
Geothermal developments are regulated by Cornwall Council under Planning. The seismicity management protocols use existing British Standards and planning guidelines for blasting, quarrying and mining. Geothermal protocols are based on how much ground vibration is measured at the surface, rather than on the magnitude of the induced event. The ‘unconventional’ oil & gas extraction industry (often referred to as Fracking) is regulated by the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA), who have set the limits on induced seismicity and require the developers to operate a ‘traffic light’ system to manage their activities. Geothermal developers are not regulated by the OGA and are not required to adhere to their limits or their methodology. This does not mean that geothermal projects are unregulated.

SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media has been used to communicate information to the local and wider community regarding the well testing. The GEL team have analysed the comments made, so that posts during and following the testing have been informative and used to correct misconceptions of the project and geothermal regulations. While comments on social media are welcomed, if anyone has queries of questions about work at the UDDGP project that they do not want to be seen publicly, emails can be sent to contact@geothermalengineering.co.uk

WEBSITE & YouTube
For more information about seismicity or about the UDDGP project take a look at our webpage: https://geothermalengineering.co.uk/united-downs/ There are downloadable information sheets in the Seismometers section. The GEL YouTube channel has all the project films and educational animations: Search for Geothermal Engineering Ltd If you subscribe you will be notified when new films are uploaded.

We would like to inform you that the testing at the UDDGP site has cause induced seismicity that has been felt in many local communities. We are monitoring the situation. Please email with any questions.

 j.charman@geothermalengineering.co.uk

GEOTHERMAL ENGINEERING LTD
Unit 3, United Road
United Downs Industrial Estate
Cornwall, TR16 5HY, UK
t +44 1326 331920
www.geothermalengineering.co.uk 

Follow this link to join the meeting remotely:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83991374760?pwd=VlZPUnA4RXcvQkVOS1ptWlZudXlRUT09

Meeting ID: 839 9137 4760

Passcode: 133891

The next St Day Parish Council meeting will be held on Monday 21st September 2020 at the Enterprise Centre, Vogue, St Day commencing promptly at 7.00pm – with only 6 attending, as per new law. Members of the public will not be admitted to the venue – instead, access to the Parish Council meeting for the general public will be via ZOOM conferencing. Details to access this, will be displayed prior to the meeting on the Parish notice boards and here, on the Parish Council website.

Following the Prime Minister’s announcement, which takes effect from Monday 14th September. The face to face Parish Council meeting scheduled for Monday 14th, will not be conducted.

The alternative date will be Monday 21st September at 7pm.

Public participation will be by ZOOM, and the details to join the meeting will be displayed along with the agenda on the Parish Council website and Parish Notice Boards.                               

West Cornwall Youth Cabinet have designed You, Me, Us packs; for young people 11-18 facing financial hardship and isolation during COVD19. The aim of the packs is to offer support to young people who are not accessing online platforms for services and support, the packs will include items that young people will find useful and fun and a local contact number in which young people can call and be directed to the right support for them, from online, to face-face provision local to them . The contents of the packs will promote positive emotional health and items to remind young people they are not alone, and provide details of how to access support local to them.

Thanks to the support from several partners of the CRCC youth team, including Yourway, Headstart Kernow and One Vision, the packs have been funded by the Cornwall Community foundation Emergency Fund and The National Lottery Community Fund, along with generosity of Attic designs,
Firstlight, Outback Trading, Cake and Craft World and Symington’s, the West Cornwall youth cabinet are pleased to be able to offer You, Me, Us packs throughout Cornwall for up to 18weeks.

The packs include:
 A lollipop
 A swizzle chewy bar
 20ml shower gel
 20ml shampoo and conditioner
 A silly activity such as bubbles or stress ball
 Mugshot (or similar)

 Mug cake
 Sanitary product for females
 Recipe card with meals under £5 and store cupboard designed by young
people
 Headstart Zcard
 Headstart postcard with contact details

Packs can be requested by contacting the West Cornwall, Yourway participation worker Kate MacArthur via email: kate.macarthur@cornwallrcc.org.uk Tel: 07753250286

What is it?
Heritage crime is any offence which harms the value of heritage assets and their settings. Heritage assets are sites which are considered to have value to the heritage of England, are important to our history and give a social and economic benefit to our communities.

What do you need to do?
Reduce heritage crime with simple crime prevention measures. Land owners, rural businesses and members of the public should be vigilant reporting any suspicious activity to the police noting vehicle details and descriptions.

How can you prevent this?
• Identify the heritage assets in your area, be vigilant and aware of the threat owners and managers of heritage assets should assess risk using the
Historic England heritage asset risk assessment tool
www.historicengland.org.uk
• Raise awareness and extend sense of community ownership
• Carry out appropriate prevention with good management and measures such as restricting access, tactical planting, CCTV and lighting.
• Heritage asset owners and managers should liaise with the Devon & Cornwall Police Rural Affairs Team

Be proactive:
Anyone able to offer information relating to heritage crime is asked to email 101@dc.police.uk, call 101 or Call crimestoppers anonymously 0800 783 0137.

Join Devon & Cornwall Alert, Watch schemes and local social media groups so that you can find out what is happening in your area.

The Devon and Cornwall police rural affairs team have produced a calendar which highlights rural issues throughout the year to focus problem solving activity for police, partners and public with key messages and prevention activity.

The Chacewater and Devoran Surgeries would like to inform patients that they will be providing a Flu vaccination service but have yet to confirm all of the details of how and when these will happen.

Once they have finalised their plans they will be notifying patients.

Please keep checking our website for further details.

UDDGP Final Testing Phase – Week Ending Friday 7th August.
It has been a very busy June, July and start to August at the UDDGP site despite the difficulties of managing social distancing and COVID related delays. This culminated in around 9 days of testing in order to better understand the geology and temperature of the deep well.

We would like to reiterate our appreciation and thanks to the local communities who have supported us throughout. We are disappointed that we cannot have public Drop-In sessions for you to see what is going on and talk to the team, we hope this update will answer some of the questions you may have.

The recent announcement regarding the governments “Getting Building” initiative, which the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly LEP announced on 4th August has raised some question about the UDDGP project and its objectives. The aim of the UDDGP project has always been to prove that geothermal power can be produced in Cornwall and this is still our
primary focus, however, GEL is more than happy to undertake a trial of lithium extraction technology at the United Downs site using the geothermal brine. This is a great opportunity for Cornwall to be at the forefront of cutting-edge research, leading the way not only in the UK but Europe. This trial will not happen for some time as expert consultation
and planning will be needed. This news has travelled fast and we are pleased that our project will be featured on BBC Countryfile. More details will be posted on our social media.

Geothermal Testing Results
During the first stage of our final testing phase we successfully retrieved a number of good quality core samples from between 4 and 5km depths in the production well, which have now been sent away for analysis. This was part of a suit of geology tests, all of which will give the team vital information about the Porthtowan Fault zone and the geothermal
reservoir in general. We were also able to measure the temperature in the deep well, which was 188C, more than sufficient to produce electricity, which is the purpose of the ERDF and Cornwall Council funding. GEL collected a lot of data as well as sending brine (geothermal fluid) and the core samples away for analysis. Many people have asked for these results via our social media, but it is going to take some time to properly analyse the results in a number of laboratories.

Geothermal testing next steps
There will be a second short phase of testing around mid-September (COVID permitting). This will focus on flow testing the deep well (water production and water injection). We will issue another project update in a couple of week’s time with more details.

GEL Website
We have been working hard in the background creating a new website for GEL that includes information about our geothermal projects instead of having separate ones. We are just making the final finishing touches and it will be launched as soon as possible. The launch will be announced on our social media (details below).

If you have any questions regarding the above information, do not hesitate to contact us.
Thank you
Dr Ryan Law
Managing Director
Geothermal Engineering Ltd