A long-overlooked climate solution, geothermal could be in for its hottest decade yet
Source: Amanda Stephenson | · CBC NEWS · | December 27, 2023
With technology continuing to advance, proponents hope this could finally be geothermal industry's decade
Source: A $50-million geothermal power plant under construction near Estevan, Sask. Alberta could have a leg up on geothermal development thanks to the province’s history of oil and gas development. (Submitted by Exergy)
It's clean, renewable, and right there below our feet, but geothermal energy has largely remained undeveloped in Canada.
However, the climate crisis and the need to reduce reliance on fossil fuels is suddenly driving renewed interest in the high temperatures that occur naturally deep within the earth.
And with technology continuing to advance, proponents hope that — after years of false starts — this could finally be the geothermal industry's decade.
'Why now? What's changed?'
John Redfern, CEO of Calgary-based geothermal company Eavor Technologies Inc., said it has been known for a very long time that Canada is sitting on vast geothermal energy resources.
But unlike Iceland, where geothermal resources account for 30 per cent of electricity production, or California — which has 650 active geothermal wells, accounting for nearly six per cent of the state's electricity production — Canada has lagged behind.
"The principles have been known forever. We know the heat source is down there. We know that every kilometre you go down you get an extra 30 degrees Celsius. It's just a question of going down deep enough and extracting it," Redfern said.
"But there are reasons it didn't take off in the past. So the essential question is, 'Why now? What's changed?"'
This country has not a single commercial geothermal power project in operation, in spite of the fact that there have been fits and starts of interest in geothermal electricity generation as far back as the 1970s. At that time, a global oil crisis was driving interest in alternative forms of energy.