OR/17/006 Introduction

Monaghan, A A, Dochartaigh, B O, Fordyce, F, Loveless, S, Entwisle, D, Quinn, M, Smith, K, Ellen, R, Arkley, S, Kearsey, T, Campbell, S D G, Fellgett, M, and Mosca, I. 2017. UKGEOS - Glasgow geothermal Energy Research Field Site (GGERFS): initial summary of the geological platform. British Geological Survey Open Report, OR/17/006.

Background

The BGS and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) have developed plans for delivering the UKGEOS project (formerly the Energy Security & Innovation Observing System for the Subsurface (ESIOS) project) which will establish new centres for research into the subsurface environment. The knowledge they generate will contribute to the responsible development of new low-carbon energy technologies both in the UK and internationally. The UKGEOS (ESIOS) work is steered by a Science Plan.

The capital project is NERC's response to the Government's announcement in the 2014 Autumn Statement that it would allocate £31m to create world-class subsurface energy research test centres through NERC, operated by the British Geological Survey (BGS). The first facility is planned for the west Cheshire area and will focus primarily on observations of fluid flow and geomechanical processes in the subsurface associated with development of unconventional energy resources and aquifers (see www.bgs.ac.uk/research/energy/esios/cheshire/home.html; Hough et al., 2016). Following discussions with the then ESIOS Scientific Advisory Group and as agreed by the then ESIOS Project Board, the second site — to be called the Glasgow Geothermal Energy Research Field Site (GGERFS), is planned for the Clyde Gateway area in Scotland, focusing on geothermal energy. Specifically,

1. relatively shallow (few hundred metres) minewater geothermal potential
2. deeper (1–2 km) hot sedimentary aquifer geothermal potential
3. potential for heat storage and sub-surface heat transfer

This report details the state of BGS knowledge — at late 2016 — contributing to the ‘geological platform’, relevant for the planning of a geothermal research facility and associated environmental baseline monitoring at GGERFS in the Clyde Gateway area. This initial summary was completed by BGS ahead of any formal announcement by NERC and as such stakeholders did not provide any input to this document. This is an initial summary; going forward, the geological platform etc. will develop and stakeholder involvement will grow and diversify.

The Clyde Gateway area

Figure 1    Clyde Gateway area — blue outline (Includes mapping data licensed from Ordnance Survey. © Crown Copyright and/or database right 2017. Licence number 100021290 EUL).

The area of interest for GGERFS is in the Clyde Gateway, located in the East End of Glasgow (Dalmarnock) and Rutherglen, and straddling the boundary between Glasgow City and South Lanarkshire councils on the north and south sides of the River Clyde (Figure 1). Clyde Gateway is an urban regeneration area, of c.840 hectares, comprising newly built sports facilities and housing for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, some pre-existing 19^th and 20^th century legacy housing, and vacant and derelict land with a history of multiple former industrial uses and housing. Some of area is owned by Clyde Gateway URC (Urban Regeneration Company; a partnership of Glasgow City Council, South Lanarkshire Council and Scottish Enterprise, backed by Scottish Government). Some individual blocks of land have been acquired by private developers.

The focus for this report is the Clyde Gateway area.

Summary of geology and previous BGS work

The Clyde Gateway area is underlain by a complex glacial and post-glacial superficial deposits succession up to c.35 m thick, including substantial anthropogenic deposits, of varying lithology and engineering properties. The bedrock geology is a faulted, heterolithic coal-bearing sequence that has been extensively mined to depths of approximately 270 m. The site is typical of the complex geology found in many UK coalfields and as such forms a realistic exemplar for study as a subsurface monitoring laboratory.

BGS has worked in the Glasgow area for many years with extensive data collection, digitisation, interpretation and modelling undertaken from 2005–2012 as part of co-funded work with Glasgow City Council, Clyde Gateway URC and others in the Clyde-Urban Super-Project (CUSP). The scope of this work ranged from geology, hydrogeology and engineering geology to soil and water geochemistry (e.g. Merritt et al., 2007; Campbell et al., 2008; Fordyce, 2012; Monaghan et al., 2014). Thus, a range of surface and subsurface data have already been collected, digitised and interpreted, for example:

• 1:10k digital geological and environmental geology maps
• 3D geological models for superficial deposits and bedrock
• extensive shallow (top 30 m) borehole database with more limited deeper borehole records
• extensive digitised mine abandonment plans
• urban soil survey and stream sediment data
• groundwater monitoring data and conceptual groundwater models for superficial deposits

The majority of the information is publically available, with models being accessed through the ASK Network. Work is currently underway to resolve confidentiality constraints for some data and information BGS holds for the Clyde Gateway area, such that a consistent package of Open data or third party data owner details will be available to external users.

Initial examples of science questions at ‘ESIOS Clyde’ in the Clyde Gateway area

A number of initial science questions were outlined during the selection process for the then ‘ESIOS’ second site in the Clyde Gateway area. These included:

Mine water geothermal

• Measuring/monitoring of minewater flow in a complex system of multiple mined seams, in a complex, faulted succession
• Do faults act as barriers or conduits for flow?
• How far does pumping/heat extraction at one site influence heat and fluid flow at another site?

Hot sedimentary aquifer geothermal

• Are sandstone aquifers — hot enough, permeable enough, have enough volume for continued geothermal supply?
• Role of mudstones etc and other seals in compartmentalising the resource and influence on resource potential.
• Role of faults and other discontinuities as barriers or conduits to flow.

General

• Monitoring to address complexities of the geothermal gradient in a substantially anthropogenically-influenced groundwater environment.
• Potential for heat storage and heat transfer.
• Potential for linkage of any heat resource to a developing District Heating Network.