The Anonymous Widower

University Of Leeds Drills Test Boreholes For Geothermal Project To Heat Campus

The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Ground Engineering.

This is the sub-heading.

A team of researchers at the University of Leeds has started to test the potential to use geothermal energy to heat buildings on campus in a bid to tackle its carbon emissions.

These three paragraphs outline the project.

The project involves drilling eight test boreholes into the ground at several locations on the campus at depths of between 150m to 250m. Work started last Monday (29 January) and will continue until May 2024.

Some of the holes will be water wells at around 50cm in diameter that will look for underground aquifers at the right temperature to use for geothermal heat. Other holes will be monitoring wells at around 15cm in diameter which the team will use to check what impact extracting heat from the ground has on the surrounding areas.

The geothermal project brings together the team responsible for the maintenance and development of the University estate and an academic team which includes professor of geo-energy engineering Fleur Loveridge, research fellow in geosolutions David Barns and lecturer in applied geophysics and structural geology Emma Bramham.

The Wikipedia entry for Geothermal Energy In The United Kingdom, is a very informing and ultimately surprising read.

This is the introductory paragraph.

The potential for exploiting geothermal energy in the United Kingdom on a commercial basis was initially examined by the Department of Energy in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis. Several regions of the country were identified, but interest in developing them was lost as petroleum prices fell. Although the UK is not actively volcanic, a large heat resource is potentially available via shallow geothermal ground source heat pumps, shallow aquifers and deep saline aquifers in the mesozoic basins of the UK. Geothermal energy is plentiful beneath the UK, although it is not readily accessible currently except in specific locations.

With more projects like that at the University of Leeds and the development of better technology, I am confident that over the next few years, we will extract more heat from beneath our feet.

February 6, 2024 - Posted by AnonW | Energy | Decarbonisation, Geothermal Energy, Leeds University