Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent estimate he has made of the number of projects to create district heating networks using geothermal energy from abandoned coal mines that are underway or being considered throughout the UK.

The Heat Networks Investment Project has made two awards totalling £9.7 million for the construction of projects which use geothermal heat from minewater. The first of these is the Gateshead District Energy Scheme, which was awarded a grant of £5.9m for the expansion of the Gateshead District Energy Scheme and will deliver significant decarbonisation through the installation of a 6MW mine water source heat pump. The second is the Seaham Garden Village district heat network, which was awarded a grant of £3.8m to supply low-carbon geothermal heat from former coalmines to the new garden village in south Seaham.

The Coal Authority has an ongoing programme to review opportunities for the use of geothermal energy from abandoned coal mines with both Local Authorities and private entities across the former coalfields. At present, there are 15 schemes being assessed.