Council awarded funding to extract heat from abandoned coal mine

Hundreds of new homes in Gateshead will be warmed with heat extracted from a disused coal mine after the local council was awarded funding to extend an existing heat network.

The scheme was one of four to secure a share of £25 million handed out as part of the third round of the government’s Heat Networks Investment Project (HNIP).

Gateshead Council will receive £5.9 million to construct and commercialise an extension of the heat network within the borough’s district energy scheme.

The local authority will install a 6MW water-source heat pump to extract geothermal energy stored in an abandoned pit. This energy will displace the heat generated by the network’s existing gas boiler and allow a reduction in the operating hours of its 4MW combined heat and power (CHP) engines.

The extension will supply heat to four council buildings, a care home and up to 1,250 new private homes due to be built in Gateshead’s biggest new neighbourhood.

The company managing the HNIP on behalf of the government, Triple Point Heat Networks Investment Management, said it is the first project of this kind to be awarded funding through the programme. It said mine water could be an important source of low-carbon heat for the 25 per cent of British homes and business sited on former coalfields.

“Mine energy would seem to be ideally suited to district heating,” said Ken Hunnisett, project director at Triple Point Heat Networks Investment Management

“At a time when we have great cause to reflect on our domestic resilience, the ability of our coalfields to provide clean, affordable, perpetually renewing heat should be a source of great national pride. The Gateshead network alone will deliver 1,300 tones CO2 savings per year over the first 15 years.

“Interest in mine water energy as a heat source for district heating networks in England and Wales is strong and growing with other projects committed to using this invaluable natural resource already in our pipeline.”

The projects announced today (19 May) also include the first HNIP-funded heat network in Wales.

Bridgend County Borough Council will receive £1.2 million to build a new network that will deliver heat to the authority’s Civic Centre offices, a leisure centre and a new development.

The energy centre for the network will be based at the leisure centre and initially use a gas-fired CHP engine with back-up gas boilers. As the scheme develops further, these will be replaced with a larger CHP unit and new backup peak boilers, plus a thermal storage tank located at the rear of the leisure centre,

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is investing £320 million into heat networks in England and Wales up to March 2022 through the HNIP, which is designed to accelerate the growth of the market. Seven heat network projects have previously been awarded funding via the programme.