The UK Geoenergy Observatories project will deliver a second underground observatory for the UK after it was granted planning permission on Wednesday 9 February. The Cheshire Observatory in the University of Chester’s Thornton Science Park was approved by Cheshire West and Chester Council. This means the £31 million project will be delivered in full by 2024. The Glasgow Observatory is already operational and providing open data for scientists and researchers. Together, the Geoenergy Observatories will provide scientists with at- scale test facilities that can be used to optimise and de-risk a range of subsurface energy technologies. They will increase the UK’s research and innovation in low-carbon energy supply and storage
Subsurface energy storage
The Cheshire Observatory will comprise a network of 21 boreholes up to 100m deep. It will provide world-class research facilities for geoenergy storage scientists and innovators.
It could be because Cheshire, or some parts of, are a great place to live. Think of it as a little bit of the Home Counties where the people speak a bit funny. Those senior researchers could be salivating at the thought of living in Alderley Edge whilst their underlings worry about how to pay the gas bill.
I recall many fun days out in Cheshire; Walls of Chester, Mow Cop, Little Moreton Hall, Lyme Park, Tatton Park. Little Moreton Hall is a Tudor house with the floor becoming uneven over the years due to salt extraction undermining the foundations. One of the other places had a trophy room full of so many animal heads that Prince Philip must have cried with envy each time he visited.
More seriously it could be because I think that is how salt was originally extracted and maybe the boreholes are still there and usable. Perhaps salt is a good insulator too.
I would be interested in what the round trip efficiency of storing energy as heat in the ground. I think there is, or at least was, a project in Canada that did something similar with boreholes to store summer heat and extract it during their cold and unforgiving winters.
I was looking at a system for my house which would have blown warmed summer air from a conservatory through pipes underneath the house about 2.4m down using solar electric power. This heat would then travel up through the ground in time to warm the house over winter. Perimeter insulation around the house would have kept the heat in and there would have been no underfloor insulation.
We went with a storage cellar instead which we didn't want warmed.
BritDownUnder wrote: ↑21 Feb 2022, 05:30
I recall many fun days out in Cheshire; Walls of Chester, Mow Cop, Little Moreton Hall, Lyme Park, Tatton Park. Little Moreton Hall is a Tudor house with the floor becoming uneven over the years due to salt extraction undermining the foundations. One of the other places had a trophy room full of so many animal heads that Prince Philip must have cried with envy each time he visited.
In my time in restoration I worked at Little Morton Hall a number of times. The floors are still uneven but there are now steels running the length of the long gallery which should hold it together. The undulating nature of the floor is certainly part of the history of the place and probably part of the charm too. On the subject of floors that have moved I also worked at Woolerton Hall in Nottingham that has a Chinese floor where no timber spans from one wall to the other and had sagged considerably. We strengthened the timbers and flatterned the floor and while it was more useable and felt safer it perhaps lost a bit of that charm
Please don't think I'm being picky or pedantic but Mow Cop is actually in Staffordshire although it's not far from Cheshire.
