sciencetech-blog

comments

A dormant volcano buried two miles (3.2 km) beneath Stoke-on-Trent could supply heat to homes in the UK city by 2019.

There is a layer of hot rocks at this depth that heats water to more than 105°C (220°F).

And the City Council has announced it is planning to invest £52m ($85m) in a geothermal district heating network (DHN) to bring this heated water to the surface. 

It could then be used to supply nearby homes and buildings with cheaper fuel.

Houses in Stoke-on-Trent could be heated by geothermal energy by 2019. A dormant volcano 350-million-years-old is believed to be heating rocks and water to more than 105°C (220°F) underground. This heated water would be brought to the surface by a geothermal district heating network (DHN). Pictured is a DHN in Paris

According to the Stoke Sentinel, work on the DHN will begin in 2016 and is expected to be completed by March 2019.

A network of pipes would take supply homes in Hanley, Stoke and Festival Park with heated water from this sleeping volcano.

The scheme would apparently lift 1,000 homes out of so-called 'fuel poverty' - a term used to describe households that can't reasonably afford to keep their homes warm - save 11,700 tonnes of CO2 emissions a year, and safeguard 1,300 jobs.

While geothermal DHN's are fairly common in Europe, this would be only the UK's second such system. 

The first was built in Southampton in 2012.

The heat would be pumped to buildings through seven miles (11km) of pipes, providing a cheaper form of heating than is currently available.

Each home would have a pair of pipes connected to the network, which would eliminate the need for a conventional boiler in the home.

The pipes will be under the council's control, but the private sector will be tasked to construct and maintain the £17m ($28m) geothermal well.

The hot water comes from heated rocks that are linked to a 350 million-year-old volcano in North Staffordshire.

District heating involves using pipes to transfer heat in the form of hot water or steam from one place to another. In the case of geothermal district heating, this involves bringing heated water up from underground where it is heated by rocks. This water can be pumped down before being returned to the surface

While no one is entirely sure why the rocks are heated, its believed this dormant volcano is the cause.

'With deep geothermal, you need a particular kind of geology, with rocks that are at a higher temperature than normal,' Professor Peter Styles from Keele University told the Sentinel.

'But as you need to be able to extract the heat through water, you also need permeable rocks.'

He added: 'It's a bit like having a hot water bottle in the ground.'

A network of pipes would take supply homes in Hanley, Stoke and Festival Park (shown) with heated water from this sleeping volcano. The scheme would apparently lift 1,000 homes out of so-called 'fuel poverty' - a term used to describe households that can't reasonably afford to keep their homes warm

While geothermal DHN's are fairly common in Europe this would be only the UK's second such system, with the first in Southampton. The heat would be pumped to bildings through seven miles (11km) of pipes (comparable network shown in Iceland), providing a cheaper form of heating than is currently available