CANADA/ENVIRONMENT - Canada has some of the biggest geothermal companies in the Pacific Rim, but none of them have a geothermal facility inside of Canada. They're all built in other countries as far south as Chile.
According to a new study in the 'Journal of Geophysics and Geoengineering' Canada could meet all of its energy needs, completely replacing coal and nuclear power, by drilling into the earth's crust and using steam to move turbines... but provincial and federal governments have been lagging behind on the geothermal capabilities despite Canada being a world leader in geothermal technology.
The study says that Canada has many promising locations where it could drill 3.5 to 6.5 km into the earth's crust, to depths where the surrounding rock has temperatures reaching 150 to 200 degrees C, pipe in water and then reap the benefits from high pressure steam turbines.
“Given the widespread distribution of geothermal energy, and the high energy content, the potential geothermal resource in Canada is significant,” concludes the study.
FACT: Canada is the only Pacific Rim country that doesn't have a conventional geothermal power plant. It has the leading geothermal developers... but they all build in Nevada, California, Nicaragua, Iceland, Chile, etc. because the local governments in those regions have realized the potential for geothermal to provide worry-free cheap energy which is constant, and unlike solar and wind, operates at full capacity 24/7 regardless of weather conditions.
Three years ago a different study concluded that geothermal projects could easily supply 100,000 megawatts of constant power, enough to fulfill 80% of Canada's current electricity needs.
Except Canada doesn't even have a single geothermal development program. Zilch. Nada. Nothing.
Canada's Environment Minister Jim Prentice can be reached here:
Tel.: 819-997-1441
Fax: 819-953-0279
Email: minister@ec.gc.ca
Environment Minister Jim Prentice
Les Terrasses de la Chaudière
10 Wellington Street, 28th Floor
Gatineau, Quebec
K1A 0H3
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