Decommissioned open-pit mines are potential geothermal sources of heating or cooling for nearby population centres

This paper assesses the techno-economic feasibility of using decommissioned open-pit coal mines as geothermal sources for heating and cooling nearby population centers. Mixed integer quadratically constrained programming is used for operational optimization. Results show economic competitiveness under specific scenarios of commodity prices, thermal demands, and pit source temperature. Higher pit temperatures reduce costs, while pipeline insulation improvements are limited. The study highlights that economic competitiveness is tied to individual alternatives' performance at the same commodity prices.

Mauricio Carcamo-Medel, Raul Fuentes, Guillermo Narsilio