Estimating Limits for the Geothermal Energy Potential of Abandoned Underground Coal Mines: A Simple Methodology
Flooded mine workings have good potential as low-enthalpy geothermal resources, which could be used for heating and cooling purposes, thus making use of the mines long after mining activity itself ceases. It would be useful to estimate the scale of the geothermal potential represented by abandoned a...
| Autores: | , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2014 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad de Oviedo (UNIOVI) |
| Repositorio: | RUO. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Oviedo |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:digibuo.uniovi.es:10651/28873 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/10651/28873 https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/en7074241 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Geothermal energy Mine water |
| Sumario: | Flooded mine workings have good potential as low-enthalpy geothermal resources, which could be used for heating and cooling purposes, thus making use of the mines long after mining activity itself ceases. It would be useful to estimate the scale of the geothermal potential represented by abandoned and flooded underground mines in Europe. From a few practical considerations, a procedure has been developed for assessing the geothermal energy potential of abandoned underground coal mines, as well as for quantifying the reduction in CO2 emissions associated with using the mines instead of conventional heating/cooling technologies. On this basis the authors have been able to estimate that the geothermal energy available from underground coal mines in Europe is on the order of several thousand megawatts thermal. Although this is a gross value, it can be considered a minimum, which in itself vindicates all efforts to investigate harnessing it. |
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