Sustainability: The Science and Industry Museum’s visionary decarbonisation scheme uses the same water source as historic well to heat buildings, saving 515tonnes of carbon each year

From steam power to green power: work has now started to transform the Science and Industry museum’s environmental sustainability, improve energy efficiency and lower carbon emissions across the site, supporting the Museum’s goal to become carbon neutral by 2033 and Greater Manchester’s goal to become carbon neutral by 2038 – 12 years ahead of the national target.

The Science and Industry Museum explores how ideas can change the world, from the Industrial Revolution to today and beyond, on a globally significant industrial heritage site. In the 1800s, a well was constructed in the lower ground floor of the museum’s Grade I listed 1830 Warehouse, to harness the power of the ground water. This natural resource is now once again being utilised by the installation of a new water source heat pump network including boreholes. Using the natural resource of the ground aquifer, an extraction borehole is being drilled in front of the grade II listed Power Hall. Using a borehole drilling rig, the drill is digging 85metres into the ground, a depth, almost equivalent to the height of Manchester Town Hall clock tower. A reinjection borehole is being drilled in the Lower Yard to a depth of 135 meters – the height of 30 double decker buses stacked on top of each other. Working with partners including the Environment Agency and United Utilities, the programme aims to use the latest technologies to save carbon.

The water will be extracted and directed to the 1830 Warehouse and Power Hall, down a network of pipes, where the ground source heat pump will use the water to heat the buildings.

A painstaking exercise of temporarily removing the listed cobbles is underway which allows for pipes and cables to be fitted in new trenches underground. All the work on this historic site is being delivered with care and attention, working with specialists to ensure that the heritage of the buildings and the public spaces are preserved.

Photo by Jason Lock, Science Museum Group