MINE ALL MINE!
INNOVATIVE GREEN WAY OF HEATING HOMES MOVES CLOSER
A BOLD new scheme to use water pumped from abandoned coal mines to heat people’s homes could soon be put to the test.
Experts behind the Nottingham plan hope the technology could be rolled out nationally around historic pits if a pilot scheme is a success.
Work has been going on for the last few years to work out whether the scheme is possible.
When Babbington Colliery was closed, the water pumps which prevented it from flooding were switched off, and the entire underground system filled with water.
Because that water is closer to the Earth’s core, it is warmer than water at ground level.
So the idea is to pump 40 litres per second of that water to the surface, and use it to heat clean water pumped into people’s homes for heating and hot water.
The mine water is then sent back down the mine, where it reheats before being pumped back up again – an entirely renewable source of energy.
The green energy experts behind the scheme hope the initial pilot will help heat 60 homes and one public building above the old colliery on what is now the Crab Tree Farm estate.
The idea has the backing of the Government and the Coal Authority.
Now it is hoped detailed plans will be sent to Government in February for final approval.
At relatively low cost, the scheme could then be rolled out in countless other places around the UK where there has historically been coal mining.
Wayne Bexton, head of energy services for the city, is confident the scheme will work.
He said: “We’re hoping this could have deployability on a much larger scale, but we really need to prove that concept.
“We’ve pinned down the Crab Tree Farm estate area as having a real potential link to the old Babbington Colliery, and identified numerous seams in that colliery that hold water.
“So we’ve worked very closely with the Coal Authority and they’ve given us some much more detailed analysis from the information they hold.
“They’ve highlighted some of the seams that we could extract the water from and then reinject the mine water.
“They are sitting at depths of around 120 metres, so that’s a thumbs-up, that’s really good news, because it means using the borehole drilling technology we can get access to in the UK, that’s a depth we could access, because it’s not too deep.
“We also needed to work out what temperature the water is at, because that’s fundamental.
“We’ve had it confirmed that it’s sitting at about 16 degrees, and the initial plans for the pilot project is to extract 40 litres of mine water per second, and that could provide up to a megawatt of thermal energy.
“That would be enough to support up to 200 homes, so that’s well within the requirement for our 60-home pilot, and we think we could extract more in the future as well, so that’s the tip of the iceberg as far as what could be possible.”
Mr Bexton continued: “The bonus is you would be using far less gas for any top up in those properties, so you’d be reducing CO2 emissions, you’d be reducing costs in the property, and demand on the gas grid quite dramatically, even just topping up at 16 degrees.
“The hope is that other seams will have water at an even higher temperature, so I’ve seen on other projects water up to the mid 20s, and at that level you don’t even need a top up at the surface (before going to the homes).