Green energy from mine water: global utilization and a new method for assessing geothermal project viability

The mining industry invests a lot of money and effort in excavating and maintaining large underground networks of interconnected void spaces. This brings a unique opportunity to future engineer and minimize capital costs of mine water geothermal projects, which have wide global potential. This paper provides an update on the state-of-art in mine water driven energy utilization and, using the example of the Upper Silesian Coal Basin (USCB), Poland, presents a simple and fast method for assessment of geothermal project viability based on availability of six categories of nearby energy receptors: single-family housing, multi-family housing, services and large-area retail, office space, large-scale public buildings, active mining sites, and large-scale production plants. Results indicate a high potential for success of mine-water geothermal projects in the highly urbanised USCB. However, the coal mining industry in Poland is in decline so there is a strong tendency to avoid any kind of investment in innovation. The authors argue that this approach, although understandable, is short-sighted, as it overlooks opportunities to promote use of low-carbon energy resources, and create a post-closure “after-life”, or support mining communities, sustaining the cultural identity of mining regions. Given that land use categorization and weighting in our method can be adjusted for local or regional conditions, it is readily applicable for assessment of project viability at any prospective mine water geothermal location across the world.