China's First Abandoned-Mine Water Cooling System Starts Up in Xuzhou, Serving 96 Homes
Xuzhou Mining Group has put into operation China's first centralized cooling project using abandoned mine water, in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province. The system draws constant 19°C groundwater from the closed Woniushan coal mine and delivers cooling through existing heating pipes and floor systems to 96 households. It runs from June to September at RMB 4 per square meter, costing a 100-square-meter home RMB 400 for the summer. Energy use is about 50% lower than traditional air conditioning, and pilot households cut around 50 tonnes of carbon emissions annually.
China's first centralized cooling project using abandoned mine water has officially entered service in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, with 96 households the first to use the new system. The project taps mine water from the closed Woniushan coal mine, where the water temperature remains stable at 19 degrees Celsius year-round. Using floor radiant cooling technology, the constant-temperature water is pumped to a heat-exchange station and, through the existing central heating network and household underfloor heating facilities, achieves a 'one pipe, two uses' model: heating in winter and cooling in summer.
Compared with conventional air conditioning, the technology has clear advantages: cool air spreads evenly from the floor, with no noise and no direct draft, avoiding joint discomfort. The cooling period runs from June to September each year, and the charge is RMB 4 per square meter. A 100-square-meter home costs only RMB 400 for the whole summer, far less than the cost of air-conditioning cooling. The system's overall energy consumption is about 50% lower than that of traditional air conditioners, and the nearly 100 pilot households can cut carbon emissions by about 50 tonnes a year. The system uses closed-cycle reinjection, so the mine water is recycled and reused, consuming no water, producing no emissions and requiring no Freon refrigerant.
The project has revitalized the resources of a closed mine, turning an abandoned mine from a 'burden' into a resource for people's livelihoods. Across China, many mines with depleted resources have been shut down one after another. The goaf areas form natural energy-storage spaces, and constant-temperature groundwater offers the advantage of cross-season cold storage, providing a foundation for centralized cooling projects. However, the model requires stable groundwater, mature pipe networks and proximity to users, and the costs of water treatment and pipe-network installation are high, so it cannot be directly replicated in every abandoned mine.
There are nearly 10,000 abandoned and closed coal mines across the country. In addition to mine water, assets such as idle land, old factory buildings and underground roadways also have development potential. However, most revitalization projects face approval difficulties, including changes to land-use designation, safety appraisals of factory buildings and treatment of subsidence areas, which involve coordination among multiple departments and can bring projects to a standstill. To break the impasse, a change in mindset is needed. Local governments should provide top-level design, coordinate scenarios such as mining-area reclamation, cultural and creative development, deep-earth research and energy-storage utilization, set up cross-departmental task forces, and implement parallel approval and acceptance-with-missing-documents mechanisms to remove administrative bottlenecks.