Cumberland, British Columbia, shipped coal for 80 years. Researchers are now testing whether the water left in those tunnels can heat and cool the whole town.
Cumberland, British Columbia, spent 80 years as a coal town, shipping millions of tonnes of coal internationally before the mines closed in the late 1960s. Now researchers from the University of Victoria are testing whether water trapped in those same abandoned tunnels can heat and cool the entire town, using the water's stable underground temperature rather than drilling into new ground.
Similar projects already run in Nanaimo, British Columbia and Springhill, Nova Scotia, so this is not an isolated experiment, it is a repeatable model for former mining towns worldwide.
Some benefits are:
- Uses existing underground infrastructure instead of new drilling
- Could lower heating and cooling costs for the entire town
- Converts a fossil fuel legacy into a renewable energy asset