{"id":54014,"date":"2026-11-11T17:02:00","date_gmt":"2026-11-11T22:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/?p=54014"},"modified":"2026-11-09T10:57:35","modified_gmt":"2026-11-09T15:57:35","slug":"a-town-in-northern-england-is-heating-350-homes-with-water-from-flooded-coal-mines-that-closed-decades-ago-and-scientists-have-now-drilled-down-to-see-what-happens-when-neighbors-tap-the-same-supply","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/a-town-in-northern-england-is-heating-350-homes-with-water-from-flooded-coal-mines-that-closed-decades-ago-and-scientists-have-now-drilled-down-to-see-what-happens-when-neighbors-tap-the-same-supply\/54014\/","title":{"rendered":"A town in northern England is heating 350 homes with water from flooded coal mines that closed decades ago, and scientists have now drilled down to see what happens when neighbors tap the same supply"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Gateshead, a town in northeast England, is using water from flooded coal mines to heat 350 homes. The water sits about 500 feet (150 meters) below ground, in mines that shut by the 1960s. The same network also warms a college, two arts venues and several office buildings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The system reached full operation on March 29, 2023. In its six-month review<\/a>, the Coal Authority called it the nation’s first large-scale mine water heat scheme. Scientists nearby now want to know what happens when several schemes draw on the same water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gateshead’s 350 homes on mine heat<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

From first concept meeting to full operation, the project took three years. Council-owned Gateshead Energy Company runs it. The mine heat replaced the gas engines that used to supply the network, according to the Coal Authority, renamed the Mining Remediation Authority in November 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides the 350 high-rise homes, customers include Gateshead College and the Glasshouse. The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art is connected too, and a large manufacturing site joined later. Engineers call this district heating<\/a>, with many buildings sharing one central source of warmth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 2023 project case study<\/a> puts the capital cost at \u00a315.1 million. A \u00a35.9 million government grant helped pay for it. That money went toward 3.1 miles (5 kilometers) of new pipe, the boreholes and the energy center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Connection agreements for 270 new private homes were signed in March 2022. The case study expected the first of those homes to receive heat from autumn 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From 59\u00b0F to 176\u00b0F<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

GEA, the engineering group behind the two 3-megawatt ammonia heat pumps, says the water arrives at about 59\u00b0F (15\u00b0C). The pumps extract that energy and boost it. Hot water then leaves for the network at about 176\u00b0F (80\u00b0C).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inside the plant, the mine water passes through titanium heat exchangers and never reaches a radiator. It returns underground at about 46\u00b0F (8\u00b0C), GEA says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Load tests in March 2023 recorded a peak of 6.23 megawatts. The plant produced roughly three units of heat for each unit of electricity. Aarhus, Denmark, applies the same principle with seawater heat pumps<\/a> in its bay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Geologists call the rise in temperature with depth a geothermal gradient. Mine water usually runs from 50\u00b0F to 68\u00b0F (10\u00b0C to 20\u00b0C), the Mining Remediation Authority says. At about 3,300 feet (1 kilometer), it can reach 104\u00b0F (40\u00b0C).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2020 the British Geological Survey compared temperature records more than 100 years old with current readings. They were quite similar. Project leader Gareth Farr called that “a clear indication that geothermal processes that create this heat will be here for a long time to come.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gas stays on as backup<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Fossil fuel has not left the system completely, because the case study lists gas combined heat and power as backup. The same document forecasts savings of 1,252 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent a year. That is about 1,380 U.S. tons, averaged over the first 15 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As with other moves from gas heaters to heat pumps<\/a>, the machines still need electricity. GEA says the company imports grid power for that job. On sunny days, surplus output from solar parks can run the pumps instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four boreholes between three schemes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In January 2025 the Mining Remediation Authority opened the Gateshead Living Laboratory in the Walker mining block of Tyne and Wear. Crews drilled four boreholes and fitted them with instruments. Three operating mine water schemes surround the site, including one at the Lanchester Wines warehouses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Drilling
A drilling rig during the construction of the Living Laboratory. (Photo: Mining Remediation Authority)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The authority says nowhere else in the world can scientists study heat and groundwater between working schemes like these. Dr. Fiona Todd, the geoscientist who led the project, said it would “help us understand how multiple schemes co-exist within the same region.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those answers have a practical use for regulators. The open data will support future decisions on permits and mine heat access agreements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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