Underground car parks could be used to heat water and save energy

Car parks, seen as a waste of city space by environmentalists, could one day become a source of energy supplying thousands of homes with heat, researchers believe. Photo: dpa

Underground car parks act like heaters for the ground and, according to a new research from Germany and Switzerland, the energy this generates could be used to heat buildings.

Researchers from Germany’s University of Halle and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, as well as Switzerland’s Basel University, analysed the temperatures in 31 underground car parks in various cities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.