The secret to efficiently heating some buildings might lurk beneath our feet, in the heat that humans have inadvertently stored underground.
What’s more, even if humans managed to remove all this accumulated thermal pollution, existing infrastructure at about a quarter of the locations would continue to warm the ground enough that heat could be harvested for many years to come. That could reduce reliance on fossil fuels, and help mitigate climate change.
Extracting the thermal pollution could be accomplished by piping groundwater to heat pumps at the surface. The water, warmed underground by all that trapped heat, could then warm buildings as it releases heat into their cooler interiors, says Susanne Benz, an environmental scientist at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada.
Curious about sustainability, the researchers also identified places where the continuous flow of heat into the underground — and not just the stockpiled thermal pollution — was high. Their calculations show that if all of the accumulated heat was first extracted, the heat that continued leaking from existing infrastructure could be harvested at about 25 percent of the 6,000 locations.
Singapore Latest News, Singapore Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Bitcoin ready to attack key trendline, says data as BTC price holds $20KBitcoin may attempt to retake the 200-week moving average with BTC price trajectory holding higher.
Read more »
Jan. 6 Committee, DOJ Demand Phone Data From Secret Service, John EastmanThe committee is seeking the “erased” Secret Service text messages, while the DOJ is seeking former Trump lawyer's phone contents.
Read more »
Google demands Android app developers turn over Data safety info by July 20thAndroid app developers have until July 20th to pass along to Google the data from users that their apps collect. This is part of Google's new Data safety feature.
Read more »
Republicans pressure TikTok over China access to user dataRepublican leaders are increasing the pressure on TikTok over the possibility that China is able to access its American data.
Read more »
House, Senate Democrats push regulators to demand data from Bitcoin minersHouse and Senate members sent a letter to the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency asking regulators to demand that crypto miners report information about missions and energy use.
Read more »