Drilling operations have started for a new heat source to augment the capacity of the Mijnwater heating network supplying the Parkstad region in the Netherlands. The new well is being drilled at Terhoevenderweg in Heerlen to a depth of 634 meters to access a former mine shaft containing warm groundwater.
Launched in 2004, the Minjwater project aims to use groundwater from the abandoned mine shafts in the Limburg province to provide sustainable heating and cooling of the built environment in the Parkstad region. Five boreholes and a piping system in Heerlen were initially constructed. In 2008, the first mine water heating plant was commissioned in the Heerlerheide distict.
With increasing demand through the years, the Mijnwater project now continues to expand both the heating network and the supply capacity with the drilling of new wells.
Mijnwater currently has six wells (three warm and three cold). The well being drilled at Terhoevenderweg will thus be the fourth hot water source for the mine water heating network. The groundwater in the mine shaft being targeted at this site has a temperature of approximately 28 C, and a volume of 240 cubic meters will be extracted per hour. The mine shaft belongs to the former Oranje-Nassau III mine, once the deepest mine of the Oranje-Nassau mines.
Aside from the Netherlands, several large-scale mine water heating schemes are also operational in the UK. Early development work has also been reported in Poland and Germany. Mine water heating remains an attractive development opportunity for regions with rich mining histories, enabling the supply of renewable energy using extensive but likely abandoned mining infrastructure.
Source: Mijnwater
