British researchers are testing a groundbreaking system to reuse waste heat from a supercomputing facility, potentially providing heat to millions of homes.
The system, a first in Britain, aims to store excess heat generated by the University of Edinburgh’s Advanced Computing Facility (ACF) in disused mine workings. The ACF, which houses the national supercomputer, currently emits up to 70 GWh of waste heat annually, a figure expected to rise to 272 GWh with the installation of the government’s upcoming Exascale supercomputer.
The £2.6 million feasibility study will investigate how water in old mine workings could be harnessed to heat homes. The cooling process for the supercomputers will be adapted to transfer heat to the mine water, which will then be distributed to households via heat pump technology.
Heating up to 7 million homes
If successful, this study could provide a global blueprint for repurposing abandoned coal, shale and mineral mine networks into underground heat storage systems. With a quarter of UK homes built on former mines, up to seven million households could benefit from this approach.
The Edinburgh Geobattery project is led by geothermal company TownRock Energy, in collaboration with industrial and academic partners from Scotland, the US and Ireland. The University of Edinburgh, the project’s main research partner, is contributing £500,000 towards funding the net zero targets. The project has also received a £1 million grant from Scottish Enterprise and a $1 million grant from the US Department of Energy.
Professor Christopher McDermott, lead scientist on the project, from the University of Edinburgh’s School of Geosciences, said: “This project opens up possibilities for larger-scale extraction of heat stored in mine water. Most disused coal mines are being flooded with water, making them the ideal heat source.” sources for heat pumps. With more than 800,000 households in Scotland living in fuel poverty, it is crucial to reduce energy costs in a sustainable way, and using waste heat could be a game-changer.”