The UK Geoenergy Observatory team has launched a new exhibition at Glasgow Science Centre. 

The Glasgow underground observatory is one of two new facilities that will help shed light on how underground heat resources could warm our homes and businesses. 

The exhibition is called Clean Energy Beneath Our Feet and it is on display in Glasgow Science Centre’s Powering the Future zone. 

Visitors can learn about how resources below the ground have powered our homes, towns and industries in the past, and what’s coming up in the future. 

The exhibition was created by Glasgow Science Centre for the UK Geoenergy Observatory project. 

The UK Geoenergy Observatory in Glasgow has 12 boreholes that are collecting data and acting as laboratories so that we can understand whether the warm water in abandoned mines could be used to power Glasgow or other cities. 

It was commissioned by UK Research and Innovation’s Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and was delivered by the British Geological Survey (BGS), which runs the site and manages its data. A second observatory is proposed in Cheshire. 

Alison Robinson, deputy executive chair of NERC, said: “If we’re going to reach our net zero goals by 2050, we need a huge supply of clean energy. 

“This interactive exhibition examines just that and shows the major role that the subsurface will come to play in our future. 

“Visitors can interact with the science and technology that will shape energy in the future, touch a rock sample we took from 137m below the surface of Glasgow and learn about the world-class science that’s taking place at the Glasgow Geoenergy Observatory in the east end.”

Robin Hoyle, director of science at Glasgow Science Centre said: “The new exhibition will be of interest to anyone keen to find out more about the use of geoenergy. 

“We designed it with the UK Geoenergy Observatory team so that it can travel to other science centres, museums and festivals in the UK, but for now it’s on show at Glasgow Science Centre.”

The Glasgow Observatory is part of a £31million investment by the UK government through the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

Find out more about the Glasgow Observatory and take a virtual tour here.