Cumberland’s abandoned coal tunnels could become the town’s geothermal heating and cooling powerhouse

Water trapped underground may work as a thermal battery

The former coal-mining town of Cumberland is turning an old fossil-fuel legacy into a potential clean-energy breakthrough. Researchers with the University of Victoria’s ACET initiative are studying geothermal heat use from underground mine tunnels, where trapped water could act like a massive underground thermal battery to heat and cool local buildings—using infrastructure that once powered coal extraction.