A renewable heat solution for water ingress in the Glasgow subway tunnel system

Abstract

With regards to renewable energy there is a need to take advantage of a wide variety of alternate energy sources to meet the Scottish Government’s target of 100% of the nation’s electricity requirements from renewable sources by 2020 (Scottish Government, 2011). One of these renewable sources could be the water of the old mine workings of Glasgow and any other sources available underground the region. In simple terms there is a potential to harvest heat energy from underground water by means of heat exchangers. In the same way, there is a potential for the wasted ingress water in the Glasgow subway system to be used for similar energy exploitation. In order to carry out the present research, the following tasks have been planned: measurements of temperature and flow of the water, identification of the water ingress locations inside the tunnels, quantification of the annual amount of water available, water sampling and analysis, selection of site for a pilot study. By using the latest energy efficient technologies available, the findings of this project are expected to lead us to the design of a cost-effective heat pump product for harnessing heat from the Glasgow subway tunnels.