UK’s first district heating scheme using mine water energy now in development
February 2020
Construction of a district heating scheme utilising mine water energy is set to begin in spring at development in County Durham.
The Seaham Garden Village development will consist of 750 affordable homes, 750 private homes, a school, shops, and medical and innovation centres.
The scheme is close to existing commercial buildings, a supermarket and the coastal village of Seaham, with a population of around 21,000.
The new development will be supplied with geothermal heat from the Coal Authority’s nearby Dawdon mine water treatment scheme, which treats water abstracted from an extensive network of flooded abandoned coal mines in the area.
Mine heat can be an energy source that is unaffected by external factors, meaning it has a stable price and is not subject to future variations or rises in energy prices.
It is a renewable energy source that also has the potential to have a zero carbon footprint.
The Coal Authority, a government body, is committed to creating a better future from the UK’s mining past, including managing many mine water treatment schemes across Britain. It estimates there could be enough energy in the UK’s flooded, abandoned mines to heat all of the homes on the coalfields.
With one quarter of UK homes and businesses sited on former coalfields, mine water energy could be seen as crucial to when it comes to solving the Britain’s energy crisis, with Seaham Garden Village potentially the first of many similar schemes.