Small East End hole making Glasgow hot global property
IT’S a small hole in the East End of Glasgow, but it has the potential to make the area the world centre for research into geothermal energy.
The first hole, drilled yesterday just across the road from Celtic Park, has been said to have so much research potential that scientists, academics and businesses from all over the world will be looking to Glasgow to inform the energy projects of tomorrow.
The 12 boreholes across the city will record data as part of the UK Geoenergy Observatories (UKGEOS) project alongside another site in Cheshire.
The £31 million project will record information about the rocks to an unprecedented level with some going down almost 200m into the ground.
The thinking is that this will help overcome one of the major issues with the future of geothermal energy – that businesses and industry need to research in order to bring it to people’s homes.
Professor Zoe Shipton, professor of geological engineering at the University of Strathclyde, said: “We’ll have sensors down these boreholes that listen to the earth and hear the changes that happen where we have earthquakes. This sensor going just across the road will be able to hear earthquakes from across the entire planet, and ones nearer by as the seasons change – or when somebody scores at Celtic Park.
“It’s a really exciting day for Glasgow, having this in Clyde Gateway. It’s as exciting as a place where children, the scientists and engineers of the future can come and actually meet real scientists working on the future of our energy.”
Apart from using hot water from the earth to heat people’s homes, research from this site may have many more applications for create green living.
The East End of Glasgow sits on the old mines which contain warm water these have the potential to be used to heat homes and businesses in the local area following research from the project.
Councillor Anna Richardson said: “Innovation and engineering has been at the heart of the Glasgow City Region’s economy for more than 200 years and it remains an important growth area for our communities. Glasgow’s share of this £31m investment in renewable energy technologies underpins the important research being driven forward by our higher education establishments and energy and engineering businesses, keeping Glasgow firmly on the world stage.”