Abandoned coal mine tunnels: Future heating/power supply centers

Abstract

We have studied three plans for re-use of the abandoned mine roadway tunnels as an energy center. These are the thermostat plan, the thermal accumulator plan, and the CAES plan. Calculations show that the thermostat plan can provide over 15,000 m 2 of building air-conditioning/heating load for each kilometer of roadway, but electric power is needed to run the system. Numerical research proved that the accumulation of hot water in the roadway for seasonal heating purposes (a temperature swing from 90 to 54 °C) is a viable possibility. The CAES plan proposes using the discarded coal mine tunnel as a peaking power station with an energy storage density over 7000 kJ/m 3. It can be concluded that presently abandoned coal mines could be reformed into future energy centers for a city.