Hackaday
Summary
For as much old coal mines are a blight upon the face of the Earth, they may have at least one potential positive side-effect. Where the coal mine consists out of tunnels that were drilled deep into the soil, these tend to get flooded by groundwater after the pumps that keep them dry are turned off. Depending on the surrounding rock, this water tends to get not only contaminated, but also warmed up. As the BBC explains in a recent video as a follow-up to a 2021 article, when the water is pumped up for decontamination, it can be run through a heat exchanger in order to provide heat for homes and businesses.
At its core, this is another example of district heating, which is not a new idea, but in many regions tends to get its thermal energy from fossil fuel plants. It also puts a positive spin on what is at its core an environmental disaster, as noted by the BBC. These mines naturally flood, which risks contaminating the local water table with heavy metals and kin, requiring constant pumping up of this water for filtering and disposal.
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#News#Geothermal#DistrictHeating