Abstract
As the decarbonisation of heating and cooling becomes a matter of critical importance, it has been shown that flooded mines can provide a reliable source of low-carbon thermal energy production and storage when coupled with appropriate demand via an appropriate heat transfer technology. This paper summarises the potential resource represented by a long legacy of mining operations, the means heat can be extracted from (or rejected to) flooded mine workings, and then considers the risks and challenges faced by minewater geothermal energy (MWG) schemes in the planning, construction, and operational phases. A combination of site visits, interviews and literature reviews has informed concise, updated accounts for many of the minewater geothermal energy systems installed across the world, including accounts of hitherto unpublished systems. The paper has found that a number of previously reported MWG schemes are now non-operational. Key risks encountered by MWG schemes (which in some cases have led to decommissioning) include clogging of system components with mineral precipitates (e.g., ochre), uncertainty in targeting open mine voids and their hydraulic behaviour, uncertainty regarding longevity of access to minewater resource, and accumulated ongoing monitoring and maintenance burdens.
Highlights
Lessons are still being learned about minewater heating and cooling resources and technology, first realised in the 1980s, by systems which have recently become operational
Solutions to risks posed to projects require thorough planning and ongoing monitoring and maintenance to ensure suitable operation
Upon investigating the feasibility of using minewater to provide heating and cooling, certain good practices prove to be invaluable for the longevity of the installation, including thorough mine characterisation and hydraulic/geochemical testing to identify the optimum operational mode for efficient and sustainable extraction of heat or ‘coolth’
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Pačes and Čermák [3] recognised the geothermal potential of mines in the Czech Bohemian massif and used their observations in the development of chemical geothermometric tools One of those Czech mines (Svornost Ag-Co-As-U mine at Jáchymov) is equipped with a small-scale geothermal heat pump system to extract heat from the minewater [4,5]. In a distributed system, individual customers use heat pumps to extract heat from (or reject heat to) the low-temperature secondary circuit. This paper draws on these and presents newly established schemes to generate an updated review of installed capacity of MWG schemes, and comments on the current status of some widely referenced schemes It focusses on the installation and operational challenges encountered by the reviewed MWG systems, identifies the most common challenges and offers suggestions for best practice to overcome these
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