by Sophie Vorrath |
In the quest to find new renewable energy solutions, a disused coal mine shaft might not seem like an obvious place to start. Luckily, some people – like the researchers at Canada's McGill University – don't deal in obvious; which brings us to a renewable energy concept that marries spent coal mines with geothermal power. And it goes a little something like this: flood the abandoned mine with water, let the surrounding rock heat it up, et voila – instant geothermal. According to CleanTechnica, the McGill researchers have estimated that geothermal energy from abandoned coal mines could serve about a million Canadians – not a massive amount in the big scheme of things, but enough to account for a decent portion of a local community’s power supply.
According to the McGill study’s lead author, Seyed Ali Ghoreishi Madiseh, it's about more than just energy. “Abandoned mines demand costly perpetual monitoring and remediating. Geothermal use of the mine will offset these costs and help the mining industry to become more sustainable.” And it looks like there might be potential in strip mines as well as shaft mines, with a Purdue University (Indiana) study recently mapping the geothermal potential of both types in the southwest part of the state. The key, apparently, is to identify sites where underground water could be easily exchanged with surface water. Parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia are also emerging as potential geothermal coal mine hotspots. (And, as an addendum, Greenearth Energy in Australia has nominated cement company Holcim's quarry at Moriac, about 8.5 km north-northwest of the Alcoa brown coal-fired power station at Anglesea, Victoria, to be the site of its proposed geothermal demonstration plant).
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