TownRock Energy are greatly involved in supporting the HotScot project, which will develop plans to tap the geothermal potential of flooded coal mines in Scotland. The UK Government-backed project will demonstrate to private sector investors the commercial potential of low-cost and low-emissions heating, cooling and heat storage for both businesses and communities.
The HotScot consortium, led by the University of Strathclyde, includes the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, the British Geological Survey and multiple universities. The public and private sector collaboration will help to prove the resource and cost to investors, the main barriers to this energy’s exploitation. HotScot aims to deliver an equivalent economic growth to £303 million and around 9,800 jobs by overseeing three new geothermal minewater projects.
TonRock Energy’s Managing Director, David Townsend, believes the HotScot project to be “a golden opportunity to kickstart a new industry in Scotland that will help the Government meet its low carbon heat targets and create export potential for Scotland’s low carbon companies.”
As one of 17 shortlisted submissions from across the UK, the HotScot consortium will submit their full-stage bid in late 2020 to compete for £32 million of funding from the UK Research and Innovation Strength in Places Fund. Mr. Townsend believes that if successful, “The job creation potential in Scotland’s central belt is immense.”
