It is clear, renewable, and proper there beneath 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 expertise 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., stated it has been recognized for a really very long time that Canada is sitting on huge geothermal vitality assets.
However not like Iceland, the place geothermal assets account for 30 per cent of electrical energy manufacturing, or California — which has 650 energetic geothermal wells, accounting for practically six per cent of the state’s electrical energy manufacturing — Canada has lagged behind.
“The ideas have been recognized ceaselessly. 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 taking place deep sufficient and extracting it,” Redfern stated.
“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 industrial geothermal energy challenge in operation, despite the truth that there have been matches and begins of curiosity in geothermal electrical energy technology way back to the Seventies. At the moment, a world oil disaster was driving curiosity in various types of vitality.
However again then, geothermal might by no means be confirmed to make financial sense. Not like Iceland, whose distinctive volcanic geology means geothermal assets may 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 firms 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 property similar to present wellbores, pipelines, and reservoirs. The Calgary-based agency says its expertise 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 challenge with the city of Rainbow Lake — inhabitants lower than 1,000 — in northwest Alberta.
‘A brand new economic system’
Dan Fletcher, the city’s chief administrative officer, stated Rainbow Lake goals to turn into 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 stated.
“And that form of caught our curiosity. You realize, we’re a historic oil city, however this might be one thing that might be very completely different for us — a brand new economic system, successfully.”
E2E founder Domenico Daprocida stated even with latest technological advances, geothermal stays costlier than different renewable energy options similar 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 potential to supply 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 stated.
“A geothermal plant is the closest factor you will get to a gas-fired energy plant, offering base-load energy — however renewable,” Daprocida stated.
“I believe in some unspecified time in the future it will 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 probably be one presently being developed in southern Saskatchewan by a privately held firm referred to as Deep Corp. The corporate has raised $27 million in personal fairness, in addition to greater than $25 million in authorities funding, and hopes to have its facility totally commissioned by the top of 2025.
One factor working within the geothermal business’s favour is that the talents, engineering know-how and drilling expertise required are just about the very same as that used within the oil and gasoline sector — it simply requires deeper drilling, stated Deep Corp. president and CEO Kirsten Marcia.
“Right here in Saskatchewan, we’re surrounded by drilling rigs, we’re growing oil and gasoline assets,” Marcia stated.
“Properly, we drill proper previous these assets to get to our geothermal assets.”
Marcia stated she believes geothermal may have a “large seat on the desk” sooner or later on account of its power-generating potential, but in addition due to its potential for use to warmth houses in Canada’s chilly winters.
However whereas geothermal could also be on the cusp of its breakthrough decade, there may be an excessive amount of work nonetheless to be finished.
“While you consider Iceland or these main geysers in California, these tasks had been developed early on as a result of they’re apparent. You realize (the useful resource) is there.” Marcia stated.
“However once you’re standing out in the course of a canola discipline close to our challenge close to Estevan, Saskatchewan, the very last thing you are considering of is the geothermal useful resource beneath your ft,” she added.
“For us, we now have to drill three-and-a-half kilometres down after which three kilometres horizontally as a way to entry it. That is not straightforward. It’s extremely onerous, and there is a lot that goes into that.”