West of England coalmines to be mapped for renewable energy potential

When Bryn Hawkins worked in coalmines through the 1960s and early 1970s he says few understood the impact the burning of fossil fuels would have on the planet.

Now, public officials are hoping disused mines that provided millions of tonnes of fossil fuels could be used as a potential source of renewable energy across the country.

It has already been a success in Gateshead, where the council-owned Gateshead Energy Company is using warm water from the extensive network of old mine workings 150 metres below the town to supply heat and hot water.

Other authorities are catching on to the potential with the metro mayor for the west of England, Dan Norris, betting £1.5m that some of the 100-plus mines in Somerset and South Gloucestershire will be able to provide a renewable source of heat in the region.

The New Rock colliery, pictured in 1967, Photograph: Coal Authority

Speaking at the launch of a mapping study in the former mining town of Radstock, Somerset, Hawkins, 82, is buoyed up by the prospect of the mines that provided a livelihood for him and his family being repurposed for the benefit of the environment.

“It’s wonderful,” he says. “In my lifetime, the concerns about the environment have come up relatively recently. We didn’t think anything of the smoke going out of the chimneys. But now there’s more interest, more attention – and I understand it a little bit more.”

When mines were up and running they were pumped dry so miners could access the coal. When they were closed, the pumps were turned off and the mines were flooded again.