United Kingdom: International feasibility study tests storing waste heat underground

A £2.6 million ($3.3m) international project will investigate storing waste heat from an Edinburgh University supercomputer in old mine workings, before using it to heat local homes. This study will examine the idea of storing hot water at 40oC in disused mines before using it for domestic heating in the city.

Professor Christopher McDermott, from the University of Edinburgh’s School of Geosciences, lead academic on the project, said, “This project opens up the potential for extracting heat stored in mine water more broadly. Most disused coalmines are flooded with water, making them ideal heat sources for heat pumps. With more than 800,000 households in Scotland in fuel poverty, bringing energy costs down in a sustainable way is critical, and using waste heat could be a game-changer.”

David Townsend, founder of TownRock Energy, added, “Capturing, storing, and re-using waste heat is critically important to reaching net zero, and here we are learning and testing how best to do this in the ground, in legacy coal mine infrastructure."

Suzanne Sosna, director of energy transition at Scottish Enterprise, said, “I’ll watch with keen interest how gigabytes can turn into clean heat as the Edinburgh Geothermal project progresses. This initiative also highlights the energy transition market opportunities available for Scotland as we strive for net zero.”