The water sector has the skills and technologies to exploit the huge reservoirs of heated mine water around the country. Scotland leading the way deploying this technology. 

1. Abandoned collieries could hold key to heating UK homes – Geologists aim to tap reservoir in tunnels under Glasgow

Guardian Robin McKie Science editor   Scientists are finalising plans to exploit the vast reservoir of warm water that fills a labyrinth of disused mines and porous rock layers underneath Glasgow. They believe this subterranean store of naturally heated water could be used to warm homes in the city. If the system proves successful, such water could then be exploited in other cities and towns across Britain, they say.

The £9m project will initially involve drilling narrow boreholes filled with instruments to survey temperature, seismic activity, water flow, acidity and other variables to establish the state of the water in the rocks below the city. The aim will be to establish whether this warm water can be extracted for long periods to heat Glaswegian homes. “The rocks below Glasgow are crisscrossed with tunnels that were hewed into the rock by coalminers in the 19th and 20th century,” said Professor Michael Stephenson, the director of science at the British Geological Survey (BGS), which is funding the project. “Eastern Glasgow was once the location of some of Scotland’s busiest mines. These old, long-abandoned tunnels should now be allowing water to flow freely beneath the city.” Because the reservoir of subterranean warm water is now linked by the tunnels, engineers believe they will not have to worry that water will dry up at an individual location when they drill a borehole. Click here to read more

2.  Scottish Water Horizons in innovative £1m heat recovery from wastewater scheme

In the first project to be delivered by a new joint venture between Scottish Water Horizons and SHARC Energy Systems and one of the first of its kind in the UK, Campbeltown’s Aqualibrium leisure centre will be heated by the use of ground-breaking technology which places a focus on sustainability. The centre and swimming pool is operated by Argyll & Bute Council and the £1 million project will meet 95 per cent of the facility’s heating needs and use just 25 per cent of the energy it currently takes to heat it with gas. The state of the art installation will intercept waste water from Scottish Water’s adjacent Kinloch Park Pumping Station. The technology will extract the naturally occurring residual heat, amplify it and transfer it to the clean water network to provide heating to the leisure centre. Click here to read more

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