‘Lake’ hidden under park could heat nearby homes
AHIDDEN underground lake 1,000ft beneath Solihull town centre could provide a novel means of heating nearby homes.
The borough council is investigating whether it is possible to take advantage of the ambient heat generated by the natural feature under Tudor Grange Park.
Councillor Tony Dicicco, cabinet member for the environment and housing, told a cabinet meeting that technology could tap into the hidden water source and generate clean energy.
“You can take the ambient heat from that water and use it through a heat pump, which is like a fridge in reverse, to create homes,” he said.
“And that is one of the best ways of providing heat, taking heat from the local surroundings either from water or the air or the ground.
“Projects like that are the bedrock of any low-carbon strategy which this borough will adopt going forwards.”
Councillor Joe Tildesley, cabinet member for leisure, tourism and sport, added: “It was a bit of a shock to learn that you have been living in Solihull all these years and 1,000ft underneath Tudor Grange Park there is a dirty great big lake.
“The science was wonderful, it sounded great and certainly I very, very much hope that will be successful.”
The proposals heat for a for local low-carbon heat network for the town centre were among a number of sustainable energy schemes discussed by the cabinet.
It is hoped that the West Midlands Combined Authority will provide more than £470,000 to develop the pioneering scheme further.
The possibilities that underground lakes and rivers could present in generating clean energy have been the subject of renewed discussion recently.
This month environmental groups claimed that pumps could be used to extract heat from London’s subterranean waterways such as the Tyburn and Fleet. The document envisaged a system in which the energy could be used to heat some of the capital’s larger buildings.
Chris Crean, spokesperson for West Midlands Friends of the Earth, said there was “definitely potential” in the idea, but a detailed assessment would be needed to ensure that the energy expended in putting the infrastructure in place wasn’t greater than that actually generated by the system.