Bell Island mine harnesses deep groundwater for energy needs

Story by The Canadian Press •

Deep within Bell Island Mine No. 2 is a three- or four-foot-long water pump that is submerged in a pool of fresh groundwater.

The water flooded the shafts after mining halted and the owners stopped pumping efforts, creating a deep pool.

That water has become a source of heat, as well as air conditioning, for the museum more than 600 feet above it.

A second unit converts the water's energy into heat or air conditioning – whichever is needed.

Being so far below the ground on an island in Conception Bay, one may mistake the pool for seawater that has found its way into the island.

But it is precisely this freshwater that is a reusable resource for heating and cooling the museum.

Museum executive director Teresita McCarthy says that although the system requires electricity to run, it saves the museum thousands of dollars on its heat bill every year.

“We are saving exponentially by having this heat and AC source,” McCarthy says.

She's well aware of just how much — when it malfunctioned over the summer, there was a drastic increase in the museum's energy bill.

The heat pump has been unassumingly in place since the late 1990s, but you’d never know it was there if it wasn’t mentioned.