It is clear, renewable, and proper there under our ft, however geothermal vitality has largely remained undeveloped in Canada.
Nonetheless, the local weather disaster and the necessity to scale back reliance on fossil fuels is instantly driving renewed curiosity within the excessive temperatures that happen naturally deep inside the earth.
And with know-how persevering with to advance, proponents hope that — after years of false begins — this might lastly be the geothermal business’s decade.
‘Why now? What’s modified?’
John Redfern, CEO of Calgary-based geothermal firm Eavor Applied sciences Inc., mentioned it has been identified for a really very long time that Canada is sitting on huge geothermal vitality sources.
However not like Iceland, the place geothermal sources account for 30 per cent of electrical energy manufacturing, or California — which has 650 lively geothermal wells, accounting for almost six per cent of the state’s electrical energy manufacturing — Canada has lagged behind.
“The ideas have been identified eternally. We all know the warmth supply is down there. We all know that each kilometre you go down you get an additional 30 levels Celsius. It is only a query of happening deep sufficient and extracting it,” Redfern mentioned.
“However there are causes it did not take off previously. So the important query is, ‘Why now? What’s modified?”‘
This nation has not a single business geothermal energy venture in operation, despite the truth that there have been suits and begins of curiosity in geothermal electrical energy technology way back to the Nineteen Seventies. At the moment, a worldwide oil disaster was driving curiosity in different types of vitality.
However again then, geothermal may by no means be confirmed to make financial sense. Not like Iceland, whose distinctive volcanic geology means geothermal sources might be discovered very near the floor, in Canada, it may be vastly costly to drill as deep as is required to achieve actually excessive temperatures.
That is beginning to change, as corporations develop new applied sciences that make geothermal manufacturing extra environment friendly. Eavor, for instance, has developed a proprietary closed-loop system that makes geothermal technology scaleable even within the absence of sure geological options.
One other firm, E2E Power Options, focuses on repurposing depleted oil and gasoline manufacturing belongings corresponding to present wellbores, pipelines, and reservoirs. The Calgary-based agency says its know-how can be utilized to improve the temperature of saline aquifers to be commercially viable the place typical exploitation strategies don’t.
E2E lately introduced a first-of-its-kind pilot venture with the city of Rainbow Lake — inhabitants lower than 1,000 — in northwest Alberta.
‘A brand new financial system’
Dan Fletcher, the city’s chief administrative officer, mentioned Rainbow Lake goals to turn out to be the primary municipality in Canada to be totally powered by geothermal vitality as early as 2028.
“The Canadian Geothermal Power Affiliation did a report that recognized Rainbow Lake as having this nice potential for geothermal,” Fletcher mentioned.
“And that type of caught our curiosity. , we’re a historic oil city, however this could possibly be one thing that could possibly be very completely different for us — a brand new financial system, successfully.”
E2E founder Domenico Daprocida mentioned even with latest technological advances, geothermal stays costlier than different renewable energy options corresponding to wind and photo voltaic.
But it surely additionally has a significant benefit over wind and photo voltaic, in that it does not cease working when the solar is not shining or the wind stops blowing. A geothermal plant’s means to provide dispatchable, on-demand energy — all whereas occupying a fraction of the land required by a wind or photo voltaic farm — may be very interesting, he mentioned.
“A geothermal plant is the closest factor you may get to a gas-fired energy plant, offering base-load energy — however renewable,” Daprocida mentioned.
“I believe in some unspecified time in the future it’ll move wind and photo voltaic right here when it comes to the variety of put in services, simply due to the constraints of wind and photo voltaic.”
Canada’s first geothermal energy facility will possible be one at present being developed in southern Saskatchewan by a privately held firm referred to as Deep Corp. The corporate has raised $27 million in non-public fairness, in addition to greater than $25 million in authorities funding, and hopes to have its facility totally commissioned by the tip of 2025.
One factor working within the geothermal business’s favour is that the abilities, engineering know-how and drilling know-how required are just about the very same as that used within the oil and gasoline sector — it simply requires deeper drilling, mentioned Deep Corp. president and CEO Kirsten Marcia.
“Right here in Saskatchewan, we’re surrounded by drilling rigs, we’re growing oil and gasoline sources,” Marcia mentioned.
“Effectively, we drill proper previous these sources to get to our geothermal sources.”
Marcia mentioned she believes geothermal could have a “huge seat on the desk” sooner or later because of its power-generating means, but additionally due to its potential for use to warmth properties in Canada’s chilly winters.
However whereas geothermal could also be on the cusp of its breakthrough decade, there may be a substantial amount of work nonetheless to be achieved.
“If you consider Iceland or these main geysers in California, these tasks have been developed early on as a result of they’re apparent. (the useful resource) is there.” Marcia mentioned.
“However if you’re standing out in the course of a canola subject close to our venture close to Estevan, Saskatchewan, the very last thing you are pondering of is the geothermal useful resource beneath your ft,” she added.
“For us, we’ve got to drill three-and-a-half kilometres down after which three kilometres horizontally in an effort to entry it. That is not simple. It is very onerous, and there is a lot that goes into that.”
