Opportunities provided by 21st century renewables, such as geothermal, wind and solar, have either been ignored or the costs over-inflated in BC Hydro documents justifying construction of the Site C dam, the B.C. Utilities Commission Site C Panel was told by presenters during two days of technical briefings.

Speaker after speaker pinpointed holes and inaccuracies in BC Hydro’s math, claiming the bottom line was skewed in favour of building the $8.8-billion dollar dam on the Peace River.

Geothermal power projects are thriving in Oregon and Idaho and the geology does not instantly change at the B.C. border, said Alison Thompson, chair of the Canadian Geothermal Energy Association (CanGEA), pointing to the number of hot springs and drilled natural gas wells in the province, which indicate the presence of geothermal resources.

“So, how much has BC Hydro spent in the last 15 years in exploratory drilling for geothermal resources?” she asked.

“We believe this number to be zero.”

BC Hydro has said none of the calls for independent power projects produced viable geothermal proposals.

ICYMI: Canada Has Enormous Geothermal Potential. Why Aren’t We Using it?

“This perplexes us when we hear in a submission that the exploration to date has not identified any viable geothermal resources. We refute that and think that there is, in fact, remarkable potential for geothermal development in our province.”

CanGEA mapping indicates there are about 5,000 megawatts of geothermal in B.C., and, if time and money was put into exploration, there could be more, Thompson said. The Site C dam is projected to have about a fifth of that capacity, at 1,100 megawatts.

Thompson questioned Geoscience B.C. figures that formed the basis of BC Hydro’s cost estimates, and said she “absolutely refutes the numbers that they were coming up with for exploration.”

Geoscience B.C. used out-dated technology, looking at large diameter wells, instead of more cost effective slim wells used in modern exploration. Doing so bumps up the estimated cost of a 2.5 kilometre well to $12-million, when the cost of a slim well would be $2-million to $4-million, according to Thompson, who also predicted that, based on U.S. figures, 660 megawatts of geothermal would result in 1,122 permanent jobs ­— about 15 times more than Site C would provide.

#Geothermal Would Create 15 Times More Permanent Jobs Than Site #C, Panel Told As BCUC Hearings Complete https://t.co/EOve99S3jC #bcpoli

— DeSmog Canada (@DeSmogCanada) October 17, 2017

BC Hydro ‘Biased The Analysis’ With Skewed Assumptions: Energy Expert

The story was similar when John Dalton, president of the energy management consulting firm Power Advisory LLC, spoke on behalf of the Canadian Wind Energy Association and Clean Energy Association of B.C., and pointed to BC Hydro’s habit of over-estimating demand for electricity — against a backdrop of a decline in energy consumption across North America — while simultaneously over-estimating the cost of alternative power.

“BC Hydro has employed a series of assumptions which have biased the analysis results against alternatives to Site C,” Dalton told the panel. “Collectively the effect of these biases is to ensure that alternative portfolios offer a cost that is significantly higher than Site C.”

BC Hydro considered only wind and pumped storage as possible alternative power sources and failed to consider geothermal, solar, biomass and battery storage, Dalton said.

ICYMI: Falling Costs of Renewable Power Make Site C Dam Obsolete, Says Energy Economist

And the estimated cost of integrating wind power was wrong, Dalton told the panel, adding that BC Hydro does not appear to have done any analysis of integration possibilities.

“BC Hydro adds a $5-megawatt hour wind integration cost, while also including $48-megawatt hour for pumped storage, which can assist with integration. Considering both costs is double counting,” he said.

BC Hydro’s accounting came under further scrutiny from energy consultant Robert McCullough, speaking for the Peace Valley Landowner Association and Peace Valley Environment Association.

ICYMI: Terminating Site C Dam, Building Alternatives Could Save B.C. Over $1B: Economist

“If we believe that British Columbia cannot build a wind farm for the same price that Governor Inslee in Washington can, there’s something wrong — with the same culture, the same level of expertise, the same workers, the same terrain,” he said.

Marc Eliesen, former CEO of BC Hydro, focused on BC Hydro’s mismanagement of the project, with cost overruns already on the horizon.

In August, BC Hydro president Chris O’Riley told the commission that Site C was on time and on budget, but, earlier this month, the story changed. Geotechnical and construction problems and a year’s delay in the river diversion, will mean an additional $610 million on the bill, he said.

“BC Hydro’s current and continued project mismanagement can only lead to a conclusion that the project will reach $12 billion before it is complete,” Eliesen said.

“BC Hydro’s efforts to reach a point of no return for this project have added costs to the project which have not yet been properly identified or calculated and would not have been incurred if BC Hydro had been working toward the publicly announced plan.”

However, O’Riley, one of a team of BC Hydro spokesmen at the technical briefings, said Site C offers the best deal for British Columbians and, if the project is terminated, ratepayers will pay $3.2 billion, with nothing to show for it.

The BCUC panel will make a recommendation to government on the future of Site C on Nov. 1 and it will then be up to cabinet to make a decision.

Image: geothermal. Photo: National Renewable Energy Lab via Flickr

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While news of Saskatchewan’s plan for a small geothermal power plant was met with excitement by renewable energy advocates,  experts say British Columbia is far better situated to capitalize on the technology yet has failed to do so.

“It should be a little bit of a shock that a less good resource is being developed in Saskatchewan over a world-class resource in B.C.,” said Alison Thompson, chair and co-founder of the Canadian Geothermal Energy Association (CanGEA).

B.C. is located on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a geothermal hot zone. Maps produced by CanGEA found B.C. has enough geothermal potential to power the entire province.

“There are geothermal projects all up the coast but they stop at the border. There’s nothing in B.C.,” Thompson said.

“This is clearly not technical, not economic. This is policy driven.”

Northeastern B.C., a hotbed of oil and gas drilling, is home to one of the hottest recorded wells in Canada, measured at around 170 degrees Celsius. Aquifer temperatures in Saskatchewan’s Williston Basin are recorded at around 120 degrees.

“You only need about 80 degrees for power,” Thompson said.

Project developers in Saskatchewan signed the first Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for geothermal in Canada with the province’s utility provider, SaskPower.

The same has not been possible in B.C., where a primary focus on hydro development, most pronounced in the recent decision to build the controversial $9 billion Site C dam, has taken up the lion’s share of the the provincial utility provider’s attention.

In 1983 the B.C. Utilities Commission recommended the province to explore geothermal as a potential alternative to Site C. As the Site C Joint Review Panel noted in its final report on the project, the province put virtually no effort into exploring alternatives.

“If the senior governments were doing their job, there would be no need for this recommendation” to explore alternatives, the panel wrote in its final report on Site C in 2014. “The low level of effort is surprising, especially if it results in a plan that involves large and possibly avoidable environmental and social costs.”

Critics argue Site C has actually forced out renewable energy industries like wind and solar.

“At CanGEA, we’re in our 11th year and we’ve been advocating consistently for geothermal in B.C. with no results with B.C. Hydro and the Ministry of Energy,” Thompson said.

The West Moberly First Nation, which is fighting Site C in court, has also advocated for geothermal to no avail.

“If Saskatchewan can build a geothermal plant, why the hell isn’t B.C.? Especially when they know there’s geothermal potential here. We’ve asked to partner with them on it,” Chief Roland Willson told DeSmog Canada.

B.C. Hydro’s Mandate Needs Update: Weaver

B.C. Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver told DeSmog Canada geothermal is long overdue in B.C. but that “B.C. Hydro’s mandate needs to be massaged, be changed a bit.”

“The problem with geothermal in the province is not that we can’t do it,” Weaver said. “The problem is B.C. Hydro is the only buyer of power so no one is going to invest the capital in a project if there’s no buyer for the electricity.”

He added: “We have enormous potential for geothermal — it’s stable, base power that’s renewable and it will happen in B.C. sooner than we think.”

Steve Grasby, geoscientist with Natural Resource Canada’s Geological Survey, said in the 15 years he’s been researching Canada’s geothermal potential he has seen a massive shift in public awareness and interest.

A 2013 Geological Survey of Canada report found northeast B.C. has the “highest potential for immediate development of geothermal energy” anywhere in the country.

“When we first started this most people didn’t even know the term and if they heard it they didn’t know what it meant,” Grasby told DeSmog Canada.

“There has been a huge increase in awareness on all different levels. Now we’re seeing a lot of growing industry interest with small companies and people exploring this new opportunity.”

He added test drilling has yet to be completed in Saskatchewan, so it could be some time before more detailed knowledge of that resource comes to light.

Grasby said there is “tremendous” geothermal potential across Canada but the highest temperature regions are in B.C.

“That’s where we really have the potential to consider electrical generation compared to just direct heat. There’s been a lot of interest and various projects pushing forward. It’s an exciting time.”

B.C. Policy ‘Indifference’ to Geothermal Hurt Industry

In Valemount, B.C., plans for a geothermal ecovillage are underway. If successful, the plan will not only produce electricity but also provide direct heat for the community, recreational hot springs, year round greenhouses and a first-in-Canada geothermal brewery.

It took several years for the company behind the project, Borealis Geopower, to land a drilling permit.

Thompson, who’s also a principal at Borealis, said the regulatory system is slow, full of setbacks and plagued by what she considers chronic indifference.

Policy in B.C. hasn’t kept pace with advancements in the geothermal field, she said.

“For example, B.C. Hydro only thinks about electricity and there isn’t a utility provider in B.C. that thinks about heat. Geothermal can give you electricity, it can give you heat and it can even be a source of precious minerals that don’t have to be open pit mined. It provides jobs and carbon credits.”

Borealis is now awaiting a land access permit for the drilling pad from the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations.

Thompson said the permit is stuck in suspension as B.C.’s political landscape remains uncertain.

“If this was oil and gas permitting it would be done in weeks. With geothermal, this is rolling out in the months and years,” she said.

Korie Marshall from the Valemount Geothermal Society said some of the lag time can be considered the hazards of trailblazing.

“It’s not always fun to be first. We’ve been coming up against all these roadblocks that no one understands. We want to help fix that for others coming up.”

“A big part of our goal as a society is not to just get this going in Valemount but to show the rest of Canada that we can do it.”

Geothermal Energy a Part of Community Building

Meanwhile, geothermal companies are chomping at the bit to get to work in B.C.

“At StromTech we’re actively engaged with clients in northeastern B.C., in the Peace River region, to explore geothermal. There’s lots of good opportunity up there,” said Ben Lee, engineer and geothermal consultant with StromTech Energy Services.

StromTech is in the preliminary stages of conducting a feasibility study for a community led geothermal project with the West Moberly First Nation.

Lee said smaller communities stand to benefit from local geothermal projects, especially where heat from geothermal projects can be used to prop up other industries and jobs.

“The fact that we can generate electricity and generate heat in sustainable, renewable manner — that’s sometimes overlooked or glossed over,” Lee said.

Lee said northern communities concerned about food security are especially interested in the co-generation of electricity and direct heat from geothermal.

“The ability to grow food and produce that for themselves, reduce their reliance on imported food whether that be from the Okanagan or southern B.C. or California, that’s of interest to remote communities.”

“Where I see an opportunity for government, for B.C. Hydro to make a difference is in supporting localized, distributed generation.”

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Saskatchewan has developed a bit of a negative reputation on the environmental front lately.

Guess that’s what happens when a premier threatens to sue the federal government over mandated carbon pricing and instead promotes the extremely expensive technology of carbon capture and storage.

That’s why it came as quite a surprise when provincial electricity utility SaskPower announced in mid-May that it had signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) — a contract for guaranteed sales at a fixed price — with geothermal company Deep Earth Energy Production.

The project in Williston Basin is an extremely small one: at five megawatts (MW), it will represent only 0.1 per cent of the province’s current electricity capacity. But it will be the first geothermal power project in Canada and experts say that it’s a huge step forward for geothermal, not only for Saskatchewan but the entire country.

“Saskatchewan is very quiet and all of a sudden boom, they make an announcement,” says Alison Thompson, chair and co-founder of the Canadian Geothermal Energy Association (CanGEA), in an interview with DeSmog Canada. “This is a little bit unexpected, but of course very, very positive. It has to start somewhere.”

“We don’t have any geothermal power generation in Canada yet,” adds Kirsten Marcia, president and CEO of Deep Earth Energy Production, also known as DEEP. “A successful project like DEEP will really help bolster other projects in other provinces to move ahead and get a little more traction.”

There’s also plenty of opportunity for retraining oil and gas workers for geothermal projects, including in manufacturing components, performing electrical work and operating rigs. In 2014, it was calculated by CanGEA that while the controversial Site C Dam in northeastern B.C. would only generate 150 permanent jobs, the same amount of power produced by geothermal would result in 2,000.

Saskatchewan Did What?! Province OKs Canada’s First #Geothermal Power Plant https://t.co/cf6kY2lrkb #SaskPower #cdnpoli #renewableenergy

— DeSmog Canada (@DeSmogCanada) June 7, 2017

A downturn in oil and gas production in Alberta has also left a highly skilled drilling workforce without jobs. The geothermal industry has argued the province’s abandoned oil and gas wells present an opportunity to potentially put thousands of drillers back to work.

Recent Changes to Federal Tax Code Helped Push Project Forward

It’s anticipated that drilling for the project will commence later this year, but DEEP has been attempting to build this project for many years.

Initially, it was expected that power production would begin in 2013.

But Marcia says in an interview that it encountered problems in funding the project, resulting in delays. In 2014, a $2 million pre-feasibility study that was co-funded by Natural Resources Canada and SaskPower concluded that 2017 was a viable operational date for the project if studies and tests were completed in a timely manner.

Thompson — who also serves as a principal of Borealis GeoPower —  points to the federal government’s recent change to the tax code to recognize geothermal heat as renewable energy, which allows for flow-through share capabilities, as a key reason for why the project could finally move forward.

“The province wants to know that the developer is actually going to spend their money and develop,” she says. “By having the mechanism available to raise financing for a project and drill wells, that signals to the province that if they provided the PPA, the private sector could do their part and go ahead and get financing.”

Aquifer Could Support 20 Small Geothermal Plants

Thompson says that in the “volcanic section of the world” — which includes the likes of Iceland, New Zealand and California — it’s not unusual to have a geothermal plant with capacity to generate 200 megawatts of electricity.

That’s simply not possible in most of Canada. Instead, geothermal companies wishing to generate electricity from heat will have to drill over three kilometres into the earth to reach the resource in the range of 120 degrees Celsius, constructing a series of small plants within the same region.

Marcia notes that most geothermal gradings are about 30 degrees Celsius per kilometre. At this location — right along the United States border, near Estevan — it’s about 40 degrees Celsius per kilometre.

In other words, it’s an ideal spot.

According to DEEP, the Williston Basin Hot Sedimentary Aquifer could support 200 megawatts worth of capacity from more than 20 plants.

The current estimate for the first five megawatt plant is around $40 million in capital costs, or about $8 million per megawatt of new installed capacity. For context, British Columbia’s proposed Site C Dam would add 1,100 megawatts for $9 billion, or about $8.2 million per megawatt of installed capacity.

However, Marcia notes that she anticipates the federal government will fund about half of the project, bringing down capital costs significantly. It’s also expected that economies of scale in later projects would result in capital cost savings of 10 per cent.

In addition, DEEP plans to sell the wastewater before reinjecting it back into the earth. Marcia says the most obvious client would be a greenhouse developer, with the wastewater discounted to the price of readily available natural gas and coming with carbon credits for the developer.

“There’s a huge business case for our wastewater,” she explains. “The water that comes out of the plant is still 65 degrees Celsius, so it’s extremely hot still. We’ve done some modelling on what we can do with that: as it turns out, from just one of our plants, we could heat a 45 acre greenhouse.”

In an interview with a Saskatchewan radio station, Marcia suggested that heat could help grow a variety of products, including legal marijuana.

Province Still Plans to Expand Fossil Fuel Power In Future Years

This is all taking place within the context of Saskatchewan’s commitment to have 50 per cent of generating capacity from renewable sources by 2030.

Saskatchewan’s grid currently has 4,437 megawatts of capacity. The plan is to increase that to 7,000 megawatts by 2030, meaning that 3,500 megawatts of capacity will have to come from renewables if the government sticks with its commitment.

“Obviously, five megawatts isn’t a lot when they’re looking at possibly a 7,000 megawatt grid by 2030,” says Mark Bigland-Pritchard, energy consultant and co-author of the report SaskPower’s Carbon Capture Project: What Risk? What Reward? “By itself, it’s insignificant. If they can do a whole lot of them as they are saying, then it’s another contributor.”

Most of the growth in renewables to 2030 will come from new wind power, via a controversial procurement process that only allows for utility-scale producers to bid (effectively disqualifying the community-scale wind projects). Solar projects are expected to add another 60 megawatts, an arguably small amount given the province is one of the sunniest places in North America.

Bigland-Pritchard notes that Saskatchewan’s plan completely disregards the “low-hanging fruit in climate policy” of conservation, and includes a further buildout of fossil fuel powered electricity. In addition, Saskatchewan is the only province that relies on coal-fired power that hasn’t announced a roadmap to phasing out the high-polluting source.

Despite that, he suggests there is potential for geothermal projects in Saskatchewan, especially if DEEP manages to get its first pilot plant working in two years or so.

“If — and it’s an enormous ‘if’ — they can make this geothermal system work in the first one to five units, then they could easily get enough to replace at least one coal unit,” he says.

Electric Utilities Must Grant More Permits for Geothermal

Next up for DEEP is the completion of the $8 million bankable feasibility study, which the company has already secured funding for. Marcia says the company will be drilling in the fourth quarter of this year, once final well licensing is completed and depending on rig availability.

Thompson emphasizes that SaskPower will have to give out far more permits to DEEP and other geothermal companies in order to ensure the power source is allowed to expand; she emphasizes that it’s not that companies don’t have the knowledge or technology or even the financing. The hold-up is the permitting process.

She adds there have been no permits given for geothermal in Alberta.

“[SaskPower’s decision] really speaks to not the resource quality, but to their commitment to use all the tools in their toolbox for renewable energy,” she concludes. “And I hope it sends a strong message to British Columbia, who has been very, very slow in giving out electricity purchase agreements to the geothermal industry, even though the resource there is the best in Canada.”

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(Valemount, B.C.) — A forestry town is working to re-invent itself as a renewable energy leader with a project that promises community revitalization from the ground up.  

The mountain village of Valemount, British Columbia, located along the Rocky Mountain trench is eyeing the nearby Canoe Reach hot springs — one of the hottest surface hot springs in Canada — as a source of geothermal heat and renewable electricity generation.

“Valemount used to be a typical northern forest town,” Silvio Gislimberti, head of the Valemount Geothermal Association, told DeSmog Canada. “But now we would like to create a geothermal industrial park.”

An old mill that shut down in 2007 provides a near perfect location for Borealis Geopower, the company working with the community to make something of the region’s geothermal potential.

Craig Dunn, chief geologist with Borealis Geopower, said Valemount is one of the best-known hot spots for geothermal development in all of Canada.

“The resource opportunity is pretty incredible all the way down the Rocky Mountain trench, including opportunities like Radium and Fairmont, which are all a part of the system.”

Valemount has a “competitive advantage” according to Gislimberti.

“We know we have a good heat source, that heat source is — relatively speaking — close to the surface, so 1.5 to two kilometres down, and we have easy road access to the Kinbasket Canoe Reach region from existing forestry roads,” he said.

Valemount sits on the end of a long power line, which means any electricity generated in the area could be fed back into the provincial grid. Unlike large-scale hydro projects like the Site C dam, geothermal has a very small environmental footprint. And unlike wind and solar, geothermal can provide base-load electricity production even when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing.

“I think the concept is great,” said Steve Grasby, geochemist with Natural Resources Canada. “Instead of looking at where the high potential regions are in Canada — which can sometimes be far from demand — they’re starting with the demand.”

Grasby said it just makes sense to explore heat resources “near a town that is closer to people and demand.”

“The question is can they find a reliable heat source,” Grasby said. “My understanding is there hasn’t been any exploration drilling done yet. That will be the telltale thing.”

Grasby added geothermal is similar to oil and gas exploration: “You just don’t know until you start drilling,” he said.

Borealis began to engage with the community in Valemount in 2010 after the company received a geothermal exploration permit from the B.C. government. The permit grants Borealis the opportunity many other geothermal developers across the border in Alberta are desperate for — taking a commercial geothermal project from the drawing board to the drill bore.

But for Borealis, and for the villagers of Valemount, the geothermal dream amounts to much more than power generation.

Borealis hopes to build a 15-megawatt power plant that will supply power back to the BC Hydro grid but the community envisions a “holistic energy development program,” as Dunn put it, that will support a whole host of community-led projects.

“Places like Iceland are getting more and more use of what is called heat-cascading,” Dunn said. “So you have a high-temperature resource that may be used for power, then it may be used for brewing applications, and then greenhouses and in the end it may be used to make sure your sidewalk doesn’t freeze.”

Meet The Forestry Town Striving to Become Canada’s First #Geothermal Village https://t.co/6QSYozKwWv #bcpoli #renewables

— DeSmog Canada (@DeSmogCanada) August 19, 2016

Beyond that, Dunn said locals already have plans for the residual heat leftover from the proposed 15-megawatt power plant Borealis wants to power with steam-driven turbines.

“That creates an opportunity for what looks like an eco-village or a geo-park…That means we can have a number of organizations like greenhouses, fish farming, brewery, silviculture, or timber industry applications in close proximity and they can actually take advantage of each other’s opportunities, trading CO2 with each other if necessary from the brewery back to growing operations.”

The local Three Ranges Brewery is already lined up to use the geothermal resources developed by Borealis.

“Three Ranges brewery is one of the Robson Valley highlight reels of new development in the area. It’s a small microbrewery that brews incredible beer — if I do say so myself,” Dunn said with a laugh.

Three Ranges owner and brewer Michael Lewis said he is excited to incorporate geothermal energy into his operations.

“As a brewery we use a lot of temperature control — both on the hot side and the cooling side. My options here are either propane and electric and we use primarily electric, but it would be nice to have a renewable energy resource like geothermal that we could use on the heating and cooling sides and get the best bang for our buck.”

“It would make us the first geothermal brewery in Canada,” Lewis said.

Lewis said the village was quick to establish a Direct Use Heat Committee and the Valemount Geothermal Society when the idea of developing the heat source first arose.

“There’s a rising tide making sure we get something going and become the first geothermal village in the entire country.”

The idea of creating a new zero-waste community while also using geothermal heat is exciting, Lewis said.

“It has the potential for being a really ticketable showcase to show the world what can be done with geothermal.”

Despite the excitement, there is still the issue of the high upfront cost of geothermal. “It’s significantly more expensive because it’s not highly practiced.”

Lewis said even transitioning his brewery to use a geothermal heat-exchange system is going to cost him. “It’s more expensive than doing something with natural gas, but it’s smarter.”

“It’s a part of that pioneering spirit that is this valley.”

Alison Thompson, president and founder of the Canadian Geothermal Energy Association, said the community of Valemount has exhibited an extraordinary amount of interest in geothermal, which puts the project at a huge advantage.

“You can have an association, you can have government, industrial project proponents pushing for projects, but there’s something to be said for pull,” Thompson told DeSmog Canada.

“The villagers are very well informed. That’s what really sets them apart.”

Thompson added the community established a Geothermal Committee and has sought out independent experts to weigh in on questions that come up about the project.

“I think this is what is so unique in Valemount — it’s not one person or one committee, or one business, or group: it is the village.”

“For other communities that are interested, I think they could take a lesson from the way Valemount has nurtured this and rolled it out to be inclusive,” Thompson said.

Corie Marshall, president of the Valemount Geothermal Society, said locals are prevented from growing food beyond the short summer season so the community is planning on using warm water leftover from the proposed geothermal power plant to heat greenhouses throughout the colder months.

“A lot of times in the winter we can get minus 35, sometimes minus 40…We tend to get a lot of snow. There are also times in the summer where people lose their tomatoes because of frost.”

Many people feel conflicted about burning wood for heat and even for heating greenhouses because of the impacts on air quality, Marshall said.

“We’re at the end of a transmission line that comes up from Kamloops. There are times when a branch falls near Kamloops and we’re out of power, three hours away,” she noted.

Geothermal electricity production offers a way to both stabilize the local grid as well as limit the need for electricity from direct heat use, Marshall said.

Marshall said that at this stage the project needs financial support to take it to the next step. Borealis is currently on the hunt for project investors.

“The biggest thing is we need to actually drill holes. Borealis Geopower has done lots of surface studies, a lot of good science, good information but at one point we need to drill holes. The drilling is expensive but now is the best time to do it because so many of the drill rigs are out of work in Alberta.”

“Somebody needs to find — or fund — the first drills and then we go from there.”

When asked when she hopes that will happen, Marshall smiled and said, “yesterday.”

Image: Carol Linnitt

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Like a stand of eager horses chomping at the bit, Canada’s young geothermal industry is waiting impatiently at the starting line, ready for the race to begin.   But there’s no starting pistol in sight. At least, not yet.   Getting geothermal projects up and running in Canada "has been harder than it needs to be,” according to Alison Thompson, founder and president of the Canadian Geothermal Energy Association (CANGea).   Thompson, along with a group of delegates from Canada’s geothermal industry, is currently in Reykjavik at the Iceland Geothermal Conference where delegates, experts and scientists from around the world are swapping stories from the geothermal trenches.   Despite having the second largest delegation at the conference after Iceland, Canada has little to show or tell.   “Canada has an incredibly high quality resource and we can’t even get out of the starting gate,” Thompson told DeSmog Canada.

The Iceland Geothermal Conference 2016 in Reykjavik, Iceland hosts delegates from over 50 countries. Iceland is one of the largest producers of geothermal industry in the world. Photo: Carol Linnitt.

Maps released by CanGEA show Canada, especially in the oil and gas rich west, is teeming with geothermal activity, the same natural forces behind British Columbia’s beloved hot springs. Conveniently, much of the temperature of the province’s varied geography has already been mapped thanks to high levels of natural gas drilling.

“The United States is the number one producer of geothermal energy in the world. Mexico is number four,” Thompson said. “I want to see Canada up in the top five.” 

“We have enormous potential for geothermal energy in Canada,” Stephen Grasby, geochemist with Natural Resource Canada’s Geological Survey of Canada, said.   The “in place capacity” of geothermal energy in Canada “is well over a million times what Canadians actually use,” Grasby told DeSmog Canada.   “There’s always a distinction between what’s in place and what you can extract from that and that’s where economic barriers come in,” Grasby said, adding the high capacity is “comforting because it says we only need to produce a tiny fraction of that to supply a significant amount of energy for Canada.”   Canada spent a full decade studying the country’s vast geothermal resources during 1975 to 1985 but when the energy crisis ended, so did the country’s desire for renewable energy security.   But now concerns about climate change have pushed the alternative energy portfolio back onto the table.   In 2007 Grasby, along with a team of scientists and researchers, began updating Canada’s old research, finding geothermal potential exists right across the country.  

Stephen Grasby photographs Hellisheidi, the world's largest geothermal power station outside of Reykjavik, Iceland. Photo: Carol Linnitt.   How you view the resource “depends on what end use you want to make of it,” Grasby said. “You can use it for direct heating, electricity generation or heat exchange systems.”   Geothermal plays are greatly varied, Grasby said, meaning how one uses the resource largely depends on what they want to do with the heat.   Grasby, who is also in Iceland for the geothermal conference, said he hopes his work at Natural Resources Canada can help advance the geothermal industry in Canada.   “We’re not a regulatory department, our main focus is to provide industry the geological information they need. That’s the one area we can help in.”   “We find the haystack and leave it to industry to find the needle,” Grasby said.   “Now we’re looking at what we can do to move things forward.”   Ben Lee, owner of Raven Thermal Services, says it’s unfortunate that in Canada geothermal “has always been something of an afterthought.”   Lee, who has a degree in aerospace engineering and a background in the oil and gas sector, said there are many ways of using geothermal heat effectively.   “I had a bit of an epiphany flying over Regina once in the late winter,” he said.   “It was amazing to see everything was white except for this big teardrop shape off the south edge of the city.” Prevailing winds from the north were pushing warm air generated in the city south, “creating this teardrop of melt,” Lee said.   “It just happened to be the perfect scenario for me to see that marked in the snow.”   Lee said thinking about heat — how it’s generated and how it’s wasted — plays a big role in how he sees his company utilizing geothermal energy.   “How can we capture that heat and use it more efficiently?”   Lee is also attending the Iceland Geothermal Conference in Reykjavik, a northern city entirely heated using geothermal direct heat systems. Hot water, piped 27 kilometres in from Hellisheidi, Iceland’s largest geothermal energy plant, is circulated throughout the city for district heating.

Insulated pipelines carry hot water from the Hellisheidi geothermal power station to Reykjavik for district direct heating, a system that has been in use in the city since the 1930s. Photo: Carol Linnitt.   “A piece that gets missed in Canada is the direct heating side of geothermal,” Lee said. And being in Iceland, Lee said he’s excited to see geothermal heated greenhouses used to grow much of the country’s produce.   “They’ve got greenhouses growing food in the Arctic — as if that is not applicable to Canada,” he said.   “I had a friend go up to the Northwest Territories and pay $16 for a single red pepper. My question is how can we leverage our geothermal resources to address our concerns about food security up north, particularly for First Nations?”   For Lee, the opportunities for geothermal are a vast as the resource: “We can help a lot of people solve different problems with the same solution.”   But that solution is caught in a regulatory grey zone that has so far prevented any major projects from getting off the ground.   Despite the resource potential, Canada has zero mega watts of energy production.   “There’s a regulatory pathway to owning an oilsands mine in Alberta, or for opening up a coal mine,” Thompson said. “But there’s no regulatory pathway to operating geothermal.”   She added the industry doesn’t enjoy any of the tax benefits or incentives given to other sectors.   “At the national tax level we’re legally disadvantaged against mining, oil and gas and other renewables.”   “We’re not looking for a hand out we’re looking for a hand up — we want parity with other industries.”   Thompson said without favourable tax and policy structures in place, finding investors to back geothermal projects, which are capital intensive in the early stages, has been near impossible.   “Because we can’t get the tax incentives, unless you get a geothermal lover, an investor is going to put their money elsewhere.”   “We’ve been in this valley of death,” Thompson said, but added she hopes public awareness about geothermal as well as increasing government interest might get things moving in a positive direction.   “We can do this. We just need to want to do it.”

Image: Power generation at the blue lagoon, Iceland. Photo: Carol Linnitt.

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Revelations from DeSmog Canada’s exclusive sit-down interview with Harry Swain, the chair of the panel that reviewed the $8.8 billion Site C dam, were raised during question period in the B.C. legislature on Thursday.

Andrew Weaver, Oak Bay-Gordon Head MLA and Deputy Leader of the B.C. Green Party, asked the government about the economics of the Site C dam project in light of Swain’s unprecedented interview.

Swain, a former Deputy Minister of Industry Canada and Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, is thought to be the first review panel member in Canadian history to speak out about a project in this manner. His comments to DeSmog Canada prompted follow-up by the Globe and Mail, CBC, CKNW and CFAX.

“Mr. Swain was very clear that the government was rushed in approving Site C, and British Columbians will pay for their haste,” Weaver said during question period. “As Mr. Swain said: ‘Wisdom would have been waiting for two, three, four years to see whether the projections they’ — that’s BC Hydro — ‘were making had any basis in fact.’ That’s not exactly a glowing endorsement for the fiscal underpinning of Site C.”

The panel that reviewed Site C predicted that the dam will lose $800 million in its first four years of production while it sells excess power for a third of its cost on the export market.

“My goodness, we could use that money to build a state-of-the-art sewage system in Victoria,” Weaver quipped.

Weaver continued during question period:

“Mr. Swain is only the most recent person to suggest waiting a few years to see if electricity demand for the project materializes. We could still build Site C down the road if necessary, but we could use the additional time to properly explore cheaper alternatives like our vast geothermal potential in B.C. We have the time. LNG final investment decisions are delayed or not happening at all or somewhere down the yellow brick road or perhaps in never-never land.”

Weaver asked Bill Bennett, the Minister of Energy and Mines: “Given the massive costs associated with rushing into Site C, will he hit the pause button on construction for two to four years, as recommended by Mr. Swain, and use the time to save British Columbians money and explore viable alternatives?"

Bennett responded saying, “I categorically disagree with the premise of the question” and then went on to say: “Fair enough questions about the need for the electricity, the cost of the project. These are all legitimate issues that we should be debating in this House.”

Bennett then quoted several excerpts from the panel’s report, including that Site C “would be the least expensive of the alternatives, and its cost advantages would increase with passing decades as inflation makes alternatives more costly” and that BC Hydro “has done a responsible job in forecasting.”

The panel's report also said it did not have the information, time or resources to look at the accuracy of cost estimates and recommended that, if the project proceeds, costs and need should be examined in detail by the province’s independent regulator, the B.C. Utilities Commission. The panel noted it could not conclude the dam was needed on the schedule presented and said the province had failed to investigate alternatives — something it was instructed to do 32 years ago, when the utilities commission first turned down the Site C dam on the Peace River. 

Swain called this failure to research alternatives a ‘dereliction of duty’ in his interview with DeSmog Canada.

“Those are very strong words from a very highly regarded senior official from the Canadian government,” Weaver said Thursday in the legislature. “To be even more blunt, it’s recklessness on the part of the government.”

Weaver continued:

"What we need right now is a government that is willing to show leadership on this, willing to put good policy ahead of ideological politics. My question to the minister is this. Will he listen to the call from every member of this side of the House, along with the expert opinion of the joint review panel and countless others, to send the Site C project to the British Columbia Utilities Commission for a proper regulatory review?"

Bennett continued his refusal to send the project for a review by the B.C. Utilities Commission.

Bennett responded:

"B.C. Hydro figures that we’re going to need 1,100 megawatts of electricity in 2024. We set about, over the past two years, to determine what’s the best way to get that 1,100 megawatts of electricity. We looked at absolutely everything, and the decision that we made on this side of the House was to honour the ratepayer. We chose the option that is the fairest, lowest cost to the ratepayer, but that side of the House wants us to do something different."

But the panel that reviewed the Site C proposal found the government hadn't looked at "absolutely everything," as Bennett states.

“The panel concludes that a failure to pursue research over the last 30 years into B.C.’s geothermal resources has left BC Hydro without information about a resource that BC Hydro thinks may offer up to 700 megawatts of firm, economic power with low environmental costs,” the panel's report read.

The Canadian Geothermal Energy Association (CanGEA) has argued geothermal can meet all of B.C.’s future energy needs at a lower cost than Site C with fewer environmental impacts. The association has requested meetings with Minister Bennett with no success.

"We welcome him to become more informed and to engage in constructive dialogue with the association and with our members," said Alison Thompson, chair of CanGEA.

In a press release, Weaver said the minister's talking points are missing the point. “This dam didn’t make sense for B.C. thirty years ago, and it doesn’t make sense now.”

“The question that needs to be asked is what’s the rush?” Weaver added. “LNG isn’t materializing along the timeline promised by government. Even if B.C. Hydro’s current projections are true, we still have up to four years before we need to start building the dam. We should use that time to explore alternatives before embarking on the largest infrastructure project in B.C. history.”

The full official transcript of the exchange in the Legislature can be viewed on Hansard.

BC Hydro is scheduled to begin construction on the Site C dam this summer, but the project is facing six legal challenges, including one that alleges that Cabinet erred in dismissing key portions of the joint review panel’s findings on the project.  

The dam would be the third on the Peace River and would flood 83 kilometres of the Peace Valley, impacting 13,000 hectares of agricultural land. The project is opposed by B.C.’s Treaty 8 First Nations, several of which have filed lawsuits.

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The Peace Valley Landowner Association is celebrating a small victory following a Federal Court decision that four applications for judicial reviews of the massive Site C dam, planned for the Peace River, will be heard this summer.

The Association and representatives of B.C. and Alberta Treaty 8 First Nations appeared before Federal Court last week to oppose a BC Hydro motion to have the cases heard in May because of the financial implications if the Site C construction schedule was delayed. BC Hydro wants to start work on the $8.8-billion project in June.

The Landowner Association and First Nations argued that, if the hearings were fast-tracked, there would be insufficient time to prepare legal arguments and cross-examination plans.

The court ruled that the applications for judicial review – brought by the PVLA, Mikisew Cree, Athabasca Chipewyan, Prophet River, Doig River, West Moberly and McLeod Lake First Nations – will be set for this summer, depending on court availability, and will be heard consecutively by one judge. That could stretch the hearings into late summer.

Ken Boon, PVLA president, said the decision shows the court is not going to rush or let BC Hydro set the agenda.

“The government knew when they made this decision in December that these court cases had already been filed,” he said.

It is not the Association’s problem that BC Hydro may have to adjust its’ schedule, he added.

First Nations, whose application names several federal ministers and BC Hydro, are claiming the dam will destroy their traditional territory and way of life and allege the federal government has violated their treaty rights by failing to consider the potential impact.

The PVLA application claims environmental approvals of the dam were seriously flawed and that the two levels of government failed to consider the joint review panel’s assessment of the economics.

Site C, the third dam on the Peace River, will flood 5,550 hectares of land and generate enough power for 450,000 homes, but the joint review panel found the power would not be needed until 2028 at the earliest.

Meanwhile, B.C. Supreme Court has ordered that petitions for a judicial review by the PVLA and B.C. Treaty 8 First Nations will be heard by a single judge.

The Association’s review petition is set to be heard April 20 and no date has yet been set for the B.C. Treaty 8 hearing.

The two courts are involved because the Site C project was approved by the federal and provincial governments.

As the Site C approval wends its way through the courts, the Canadian Geothermal Energy Association is continuing its campaign to persuade the government to look more seriously at the potential of geothermal and on Wednesday released technical information it compiled for the report “Geothermal Energy: The Renewable and Cost Effective Alternative to Site C.”

CanGEA chair Alison Thompson said that the geothermal unit energy cost of $56-$73 MWh compares positively to the updated Site C cost to ratepayers of $58-$61MWh.

“If the B.C. government treats geothermal energy as a priority, not an afterthought, geothermal will provide firm energy beginning in 2018 at a lower cost than Site C and in a manner that benefits ratepayers, taxpayers, First Nations, the economy and the environment, not to mention having a carbon footprint that is lower than Site C,” she said.

Image Credit: B.C. Government

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Geothermal energy offers a low-cost, clean and viable alternative to the $8 billion Site C dam proposed for the Peace River, according to a new report released Tuesday by the Canadian Geothermal Energy Association (CanGEA)

The report, Geothermal Energy: The Renewable and Cost Effective Alternative to Site C, estimates that geothermal power would ring in at about $73 per megawatt-hour (MWh). BC Hydro has estimated the cost of Site C at $83 per MWh. The report also says the proposed geothermal plants could be built for approximately $3.3 billion, less than half the cost of the Site C dam.

“Geothermal can be built as you need it, where you need it, and the capital costs are much lower,” CanGEA Chair Alison Thompson told a press conference in Victoria.

The B.C. cabinet is expected to decide whether or not to proceed with the Site C dam before Christmas. The federal and provincial governments issued environmental assessment certificates for the Site C dam in October, but the project is facing five legal challenges and calls from local governments to delay the decision for a year while other options are considered. The dam would impact 13,000 hectares of agricultural land in the Peace Valley and is opposed by B.C.’s Treaty 8 First Nations.

Read DeSmog Canada’s 12-part series on the Site C dam.

The joint review panel’s report on Site C called the province of B.C. out for failing to pursue research into B.C.’s geothermal resources over the past 30 years. That report provided wind beneath the wings of the geothermal industry, Thompson said.

“Evidence at the Site C hearings created new urgency for the mapping work we had already begun,” she said.

Now that favourability mapping indicates that geothermal can meet all of B.C.’s future energy needs, including the 1,100 MW of capacity and 5,100 gigawatt hours per year of energy that would come from the Site C dam.

“It’s been convenient to dismiss geothermal,” Thompson told the press conference. “This mindset around what people think geothermal is, it’s just not true anymore. And so B.C. has remained on the sidelines over the past 30 years when 25 other countries have installed geothermal power plants.”

Canada is the only country around the Pacific Ring of Fire that does not produce geothermal power at a commercial scale. (Read: 5 Reasons Why Geothermal is Nowhere in Canada.)

CanGEA’s new report lays out 10 key advantages of geothermal when compared to the Site C dam.

Those include the generation of more permanent jobs (2,000 permanent jobs for geothermal vs. 150 permanent jobs for the Site C dam) distributed throughout the province and a reduced need for transmission upgrades.

“The $1 billion northeast transmission line can be avoided or delayed,” Thompson said.

Thompson also pointed to a proposed geothermal power plant in Valemount, an area that consistently experiences brownouts due to its location at the end of a transmission line.

“That project provides base-load power for the area, provides economic stimulus and avoids the need to shore up that [transmission] line,” Thompson said.

There are also opportunities to decrease the greenhouse gas emissions of the oil and gas sector by electrifying the region, displacing the use of fossil fuels at well sites, for instance.

Oil and gas companies have helped identify B.C.’s geothermal potential through their drilling in the northeast of B.C. Often the water and gas that comes up out of the ground is piping hot, which presents another opportunity.

“They could run that through a heat exchanger, which then can be sent to the power plant,” Thompson said. “They can produce micro-power, enough probably for their own operations. They often, on purpose, cool the products before it goes into their machines. It’s a win-win for everybody.”

CanGEA is calling for a one-year moratorium on the final investment decision on Site C to allow time for further due diligence on geothermal. The industry group is also calling on the B.C. Utilities Commission to review its findings and make recommendations by November 2015.

“We’re crazy not to look at this further,” Oak Bay-Gordon Head Green MLA Andrew Weaver told DeSmog Canada. “The government has said many times that they want to protect the ratepayer … that requires them to look at geothermal. It would be irresponsible not to do it.”

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At a time when B.C.’s politicians are considering flooding the Peace Valley for the Site C hydroelectric dam, a new project by the Canadian Geothermal Energy Association says the province could be sitting on a figurative gold mine of power with low environmental impact.The project used publicly available data to produce a database of maps and supporting information that show all the areas in B.C. that have the potential to produce geothermal energy. The project reports that, using existing technology, the province could produce between 5,500 and 6,600 mega watts of power — enough to power the whole province. Ironically, the information CanGEA used comes mainly from the oil and gas industry, which is required by law to report on things like well depth and temperature.

“The low level of effort is surprising, especially if it results in a plan that involves large and possibly avoidable environmental and social costs,” the panel wrote.

The Site C joint review panel recommended that, regardless of the decision taken on Site C, that BC Hydro establish a research and development budget for the engineering characterization of geographically diverse renewable resources, such as geothermal.

“If the senior governments were doing their job, there would be no need for this recommendation,” the panel added.

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