Construction of the ‘Gateshead Mine Water Heat Living Laboratory’

Understanding the subsurface is essential in all geothermal projects and in particular for mine water heating and cooling where the hydrogeological processes within the mine workings are complex and little understood. This paper outlines the construction of an innovative monitoring network assessing interactions between multiple operational mine water heat schemes in Gateshead, North East England, UK. The construction process and timeline are provided alongside lessons learnt during the drilling and instrumentation specification. Initial data collected from the site are outlined and interpreted. The data show that the monitoring network can detect changes in mine water level that respond to abstraction and recharge of water at the operational mine heat schemes. The data collected through the monitoring network are open access, making it a unique site to develop the understanding of the thermal and hydrogeological processes in mine workings. An important initial finding is that the geothermal gradient profile of 0.06°C m –1 is nearly double previous estimates for the area. The data can be used by developers, operators, regulators and researchers to better understand and de-risk deployment of mine water heat at scale in the UK.