Taltech researchers from the Institute of Marine Systems contributed an article about the possibilities of using heat created by Baltic Sea water to the newly published Copernicus Ocean State Report 8. The example case was the Bay of Tallinn.

Emeritus Professor Jüri Elken said Tallinn is one of the largest cities in the Baltic Sea with a favorable location for using seawater to create heat. The required depths – 50 meters and more – are only a few kilometers away from the beach.

But before this could happen, several factors affecting the marine environment and technical solutions need to be taken into account, researchers said.

One of these is the environmental impact of pumping water from that depth, senior researcher Ilja Malyutenko said.

"If the nutrient-rich water used in the heat pump is discharged back into the sea near the coast, which seems like the cheapest solution, the nutrients will likely remain close to the shore and exacerbate eutrophication, which we are all trying to combat," he highlighted.  

While several issues still need to be resolved, Utilitas AS and the developers of the future climate-neutral Hundipea district have already started researching the topic.

Rivo Uiboupin, director and associate professor of TalTech's Institute of Marine Systems, said entrepreneurs are interested in the public sector's research.

"We have participated in the Geological Survey's geothermal energy studies. With the support of the Estonian Research Council, our institute's project 'Digital Twin of Marine Renewable Energy' is about to launch, where we will map renewable energy resources across Estonia's coastal waters in the near future," he said.

Another issue is that while heat pumps are economical as they draw their energy from the environment. But in winter, when the sea water is cold – as it is in the Baltic Sea – the pumps have to work much harder.

The new Copernicus State of the Ocean Review (OSR8) was published in a special issue of the prestigious popular science journal State of the Planet.

It contains 17 scientific articles, where nearly 120 scientists discuss new knowledge about ocean heat waves, changes in the Gulf Stream, and other important marine phenomena.   

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