£50,000 awarded for Strathclyde project in Strength in Places Fund competition

Researchers at the University of Strathclyde have won early stage funding to develop plans to tap into the geothermal energy contained within disused, flooded coal mines in Scotland.

The HotScot project is one of 17 shortlisted submissions across the UK chosen by the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Strength in Places Fund to develop a full-stage bid that could lead to significant economic growth.

The consortium behind the project will submit their bid to UKRI in late 2020, with four to eight of the strongest bids set to receive between £10m and £50m each to carry out their proposals.

If successful, the HotScot consortium will develop at least three new mine-water geothermal heating/cooling/thermal energy storage sites in the Central Belt.

The consortium will deliver research and development to de-risk the technologies and support Scottish industry to build such sites across the UK and globally.

The consortium is being led by Professor Zoe Shipton, from the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, and includes Glasgow, Heriot-Watt and Stirling universities, British Geological Survey, Coal Authority, Community Energy Scotland, ENGIE, Envirocentre, Ramboll, Scottish Enterprise, SSE Enterprise, Synaptec, Synergie Environ, and TownRock Energy.

Dr Matthew Hannon of the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship is taking the lead on the business model’s side of the work. He said, “This is very much an inter-disciplinary, university-wide effort. We’re delighted to be one of 17 to progress in what is a highly competitive scheme.”

The 17 projects, running from Glasgow and Belfast, through to Nottingham and parts of Cornwall, will help the UK to respond to some of the world’s most pressing challenges – from climate change to the production of medicines.

Find out more about the other projects here