EU-funded geothermal heating project to utilise mine water in Wales, UK
View over Llynfi Valley, UK (source: flickr/ Andrew Hill, creative commons)
Alexander Richter
19 Jan 2018
A new geothermal heating project to derive hot water from abandoned mine operations and funded largely by the EU will be developed in Caerau in the South of Wales, UK.
Reported from United Kingdom, a geothermal project in the South of Wales, is being pushed forward with funding by the EU and the UK government. We reported on the project before, which now seems to become a reality.
The project in the South of Wales, will be using underground mine water from an old mine, which was closed in the 1970s. The goal is to heat houses, a school and a churcine in Caerau in the Llynfi Valley.
Today, the cabinet secretary for energy, planning and rural affairs Lesley Griffiths said the Welsh Government had awarded the project GBP6.5 million ($8.8 million9 in EU funds.
Local authorities are currently investigating how the water from the mines could be extracted to warm around 150 nearby homes, as reported by The Irish News.
Test drilling has confirmed the availability of water at a depth of 230 meters and results of a feasibility study on the sufficiency of the water to heat homes will be expected at the end of February.
The project has been worked on in collaboration with the British Geological Survey, that expects temperatures of around 20.6 C – this is considered warm enough to make the project a success.
This would be the first project of its kind and of that scale in the UK and help cut energy bills for the local population.
While only to be developed initially locally for about 150 homes, a nearby school and church, the implications for the future could be greater and heat up to thousand local homes.
Work on the project could start in 2020. The project is a demonstrator project for the UK Government-led Smart System and Heat Programme, and additional funding for the GBP9.4 million ($12.7 million) project will be made up by the UK Government, Energy Systems Catapult and Bridgend County Borough Council.
Source: Irish News
