ITNOW's Popular Computer Science (or PopCompSci) brings the most exciting stories from around the world of computer science together for a taste of the unexpected ways in which tech is impacting our lives. Here, we tell you how the UK’s collection of disused mines could be a means of heating homes with unwanted data centre heat.
Researchers from Edinburgh University claim that over 7,000,000 UK households could eventually be warmed with heat stored in disused mines. Their findings are part of a £2.6 million feasibility study exploring transferring unwanted heat from the university’s supercomputer to disused and water-filled mines. Called the Geobattery, this stored heat could then be accessed by domestic heat pumps.
Professor Christopher McDermott, lead academic on the Edinburgh Geobattery project from the School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, said: ‘This project opens up the potential for extracting heat stored in mine water more broadly. Most disused coalmines are flooded with water, making them ideal sources for heat pumps. With more than 800,000 households in Scotland in fuel poverty, bringing energy costs down sustainably is critical, and using waste heat could be a game changer.’
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Currently, the University of Edinburgh’s Advanced Computing Facility (ACF) is home to the national supercomputer — funded by the UK Government's Department of Science, Innovation and Technology. The ACF is used for national climate and health data modelling and currently releases up to 70 GWh of excess heat annually. It’s reckoned that heat could be recycled to warm 5,000 households in Scotland’s capital.
This is projected to rise to 272 GWh once the UK Government’s recently announced next-generation Exascale supercomputer is installed at the University.
