Abstract
In northern Italy, most greenhouses rely on gas or oil heaters which are sometimes subject to high operating costs. Several greenhouses are nearby quarry lakes, which are the legacy of the expansion of cities in the last decades, including Turin (NW Italy). About 20 quarry lakes were excavated close to the Po riverbed in the southern part of this urban area, along a belt of more than 30 km in length, with an overall volume exceeding 10 million m3 water. The study addresses these artificial lakes as a low enthalpy thermal energy source, potentially providing heat to surrounding agri-business buildings. Detailed temperature monitoring of a large lake quarry was conducted over two years at different depths, measuring the surrounding groundwater level as well. Two different behaviors of the lake during the winter and summer seasons enabled the definition of a quite low water mixing process between the surrounding aquifers and the lake (in the range of 2–4 °C). An evaluation of the heat extraction potential using the lake as a heat source, depending on water temperature and its volume, and a qualitative comparison with groundwater systems are proposed. This study contributes to increasing knowledge on an overlooked resource for sustainable heating.
Highlights
In Italy, most of the aggregate production originates from alluvial deposits providing high-quality material
Quarry lake (red, yellow, light(light green,blue) dark green, and pink lake (T;, groundwater temperatures measured at Pz1 lines), groundwater temperatures measured at Pz1 and Pz2; the average daily atmospheric temperature
This process was progressive: peaks in temperature were reached with some weeks of delay at different depths, highlighting that the water mixing process was quite low
Summary
In Italy, most of the aggregate production originates from alluvial deposits providing high-quality material. In the Turin area (NW Italy), there is a massive presence of quarries exploiting such deposits These mining activities represent a relevant environmental concern, especially when the excavation reaches the water table of the shallow aquifer(s). As this happens, the so-called quarry lakes are formed, which are associated with several possible impacts [1,2,3,4]. Previous studies have dealt with quarry lakes because of progressive flooding of the excavated area with groundwater, rainfall, or surface runoff [2]. A similar application was recently proposed for pump-and-treat systems in groundwater remediation projects [5]
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