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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(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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