From coal to cabernet: the wine seller using a flooded mine to cut heating bills

‘If you have warehouses full of wine, you have to think differently about storage and heating.’ Photograph: Posed by models; The Good Brigade/Getty Lanchester Wines in north-east England uses heat from a disused coalmine to maintain wine temperatures and with 23,000 flooded mines in the UK, there’s huge potential for more businesses and homes to follow its lead By Chris Baraniuk S hove them in a fridge, stash them in a cellar – this is how most people store their favourite bottles of wine. But if you have warehouses full of thousands of vintages, you have to think a little differently. For the last eight winters, Lanchester Wines has used heat from a disused coalmine to maintain ideal storage temperatures at its facilities in the north-east of England , helping to prevent freezing or spoilage. “For wine, we like it to be 8-10C,” says Veronica Cleary, a director at the company. “For staff, obviously, a bit higher. We do still encourage them to wear fleeces and what have you.” Few wine companies use geothermal heat to control the temperature of their warehouses; fewer still source that heat from disused, flooded mines. But Lanchester Wines hopes its experience of the pitfalls and wins will make things easier for other companies hoping to take advantage of subterranean warmth. That warmth, once accessed, reduces dependence on fossil fuels and can make a real difference to heating bills. View image in fullscreen Lanchester Wines’ warehouses in Gateshead in north-east England maintain ideal storage temperatures by using use heat from a disused coalmine. Photograph: Mining Remediation Authority Thousands of vintage wines are stored at the cluster of warehouses in Gateshead owned by Lanchester Wines. Water in the mine near the warehouses sits at roughly 19C year-round. The company’s system works by pumping some of the mine water out, extracting a portion of its heat, boosting that heat with a heat pump, and distributing it through pipes. In the UK and Europe, a handful of similar schemes are also making use of the heat in mine water but are relatively rare. Businesses in the UK are often left struggling in the face of permitting complexities and the risks that come with drilling into the ground, according to a report published in February by the US-based research organisation Project InnerSpace. “To our mind, it was a relatively simple thing to do,” said Cleary, recalling the early years of the Lanchester Wines system. “[But] it didn’t prove that easy at all.” View image in fullscreen Veronica Cleary of Lanchester Wines says she wants others to be able to learn from their experience of using mine water. Photograph: Emily Carey/Silverbird Photography Some of the boreholes drilled to reach the mine water turned out to be poorly located. And a previous access agreement with the government-run Mining Remediation Authority (MRA) caused many headaches. After nearly two years of renegotiations, however, a new streamlined deal between the two parties is now in