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Letter: Finding unique ways to harness energy

Published 15 April 2026

From Sara Bartram, Edinburgh, UK

Chris Stokel-Walker’s article about AI data centres warming surrounding land was very interesting. In the UK, a company has piloted using this heat to warm swimming pools. A local park in Edinburgh has installed an Archimedes screw in a nearby weir to generate electricity for their centre. Ben Cruachan, a so-called Hollow Mountain in Scotland, is a superb example of a hydroelectric power station, hiding the station within its cavernous depths. It would be wonderful if human energy expended in gyms could add electricity to the UK national grid (4 April, p 7).

Issue no. 3591 published 18 April 2026

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