Tyler Hamilton, Canada’s most astute observer of the burgeoning green economy, reviews a Pembina Institute report on Greening the Grid and zeroes in on an enormously important and mostly overlooked energy source: geothermal and “enhanced” geothermal systems.
“Pembina says there is an estimated 21 billion gigawatt-hours of energy released every year below the surface of Alberta at depths of less than 5 km. “Even with the conservation assumption that only 0.5 per cent of this potential is recoverable, it represents the equivalent of roughly 14 million megawatts of generating capacity.” That, it goes on the point out, is more than 1,100 times the current total installed generating capacity of Alberta. This doesn’t even include depths greater than 5 km, which could be tapped using enhanced or “engineered” geothermal systems (EGS).”
“Bottom line: Let’s stop ignoring this amazing resource.”
This article originally appeared on Zero Carbon Canada, a blog published by PowerUp Canada.
For more on geothermal generation, see Karl Schroeder's WorldChanging Canada article, Canadian Geothermal.
