Optimisation of thermal energy storage in abandoned flooded mine workings

热能效率和可持续性是一个重大挑战，特别是对于供暖占总能源需求近三分之二的苏格兰等国家来说。废弃的洪水地雷遍布英国的大片地区，通常代表着高级别的环境和金融责任。然而，我们过去碳密集型工业的这些残余也提供了一个令人兴奋的机会，通过地热能生产和热能储存来开发可持续的低碳能源。该项目将开发评估被淹矿井地热潜力的创新策略。由于格拉斯哥非同寻常的工业遗产，城市的许多地区，包括大学，都位于一个废弃的、被洪水淹没的煤矿巷道的大型网络上。该项目将使用格拉斯哥大学(UoG)作为其主要案例研究。UOG拥有全校范围的热电联产(CHP)区域供暖计划，该计划为建筑物供暖，产生了很大比例的校园电力，并为UOG的碳足迹减少目标(每年20%)做出了重大贡献。目前正在努力实现当前计划的进一步碳减排，并确保10亿GB以上的校园扩建使用低碳能源。与当地气候一样，校园在冬季有季节性的高供暖需求。现有热电联产系统所产生的过多“余热”，若能成功收集和储存，可能会被转化为宝贵的资源，以应付校园冬季的热力需求。热存储的一个主要挑战是存储足够长时间的可用热所需的容量。由于周围地质的温暖拥抱，洪水淹没的矿井使地下水免受地表温度季节性变化的影响。再加上涉及的水量巨大(数百万立方米)，这些被淹的矿井是跨季节热能储存的绝佳机会，如果它们的水文性质能够得到强有力的描述的话。

Thermal energy efficiency and sustainability is a major challenge, particularly for countries such asScotland where heating represents nearly two thirds of overall energy demand. Abandoned floodedmines are present over vast areas of the UK and typically represent high-level environmental andfinancial liabilities. However, these remnants of our carbon-intensive industrial past also provide anexciting opportunity to develop sustainable low-carbon energy resources through geothermal energy production and thermal energy storage. This project will develop innovative strategies for evaluating the geothermal potential of flooded mine workings.Thanks to Glasgow's extraordinary industrial heritage, many parts of the city, including the University, are positioned over a large network of abandoned, flooded coal mine workings. This project will use the University of Glasgow (UoG) as its major case study. The UoG has a campus wide Combined Heat and Power (CHP) district heating scheme which heats buildings, generates a large percentage of campus electricity and makes a significant contribution to the UoG's carbon footprint reduction target (20% per year). Efforts are underway to achieve further carbon emission reductions for the current scheme and to ensure low-carbon energy for a £1 billion plus campus expansion.As to be expected with the local climate, the campus has a seasonally high heat demand in the winter months. Excess 'waste' heat generated by the existing CHP system could potentially be turned into a valuable resource to help meet campus winter heat demand if it could be successfully captured and stored. A major challenge for heat storage is the capacity required to store enough useable heat for a long enough duration. Due to the warm embrace of the surrounding geology, the flooded mine workings insulate groundwater from seasonal variations in surface temperature. Add to that the enormous volumes of water involved (several million m3), and these flooded mine workings represent a fantastic opportunity for inter-seasonal thermal energy storage if their hydrological nature can be robustly characterised.