Bridgend Council has been awarded £6.5m of EU funds to develop a trailblazing energy project which involves using water that has filled Caerau’s old underground mine workings as a geo-thermal source of energy. The water has been warmed naturally by the earth’s core so has an average temperature of around 20C – this water will be pumped to a heat exchanger at the surface which will extract the heat out of the mine water.
The heat will then be transformed through a network of pipes to people’s homes, get passed through a heat pump and then heat homes through existing radiator systems. To begin with, 150 homes will be linked up to the scheme, with potential for hundreds more to link up to the system in future.
Children from six primary schools have attended workshops teaching them about this project, with workbooks to take home to families to talk to them about it. The workshops have given the children a chance to learn about the science behind the project but also to learn about the importance of using renewable sources of energy. The project has also been recognised for its potential to tackle fuel poverty.
