CALGARY — Premier Danielle Smith has stated Alberta’s oil patch expertise could help transform the province into a global leader in geothermal energy.Smith told delegates at the World Geothermal Congress in Calgary on Monday that Alberta has a significant advantage over other competing regions because of decades of experience in oil and gas drilling.“We have some of the most advanced drilling capabilities in the world and after decades of exploration, our subsurface data is extensive,” Smith said.“We have plenty of wells and related infrastructure that we can repurpose to keep down the cost.”The premier added that Alberta has spent years working to expand renewable electricity generation and now has roughly 38% of its installed generating capacity coming from renewable sources. Most of those renewable sources are wind and solar, which account for 23% of Alberta’s total electricity production but are intermittent and require backup generation provided by natural gas.“Geothermal offers the opportunity for base-load, year-round renewable power, and that's one of the reasons why we're so very excited about it,” Smith said..She argued Alberta’s oil and gas sector has already developed many of the skills needed to advance geothermal technology, citing projects being developed by Calgary-based Eavor Technologies, which relies on similar drilling expertise and engineering concepts used in Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) operations.Eavor’s Geretsried, Germany project — the company’s first commercial-scale project — was cited as an example of home-grown technology being deployed internationally.While that project is currently focused on heat production rather than electricity generation, she said Alberta companies are working to drill even deeper — potentially reaching depths of 10 to 15 kilometres — where temperatures could support large-scale power generation.“We've drilled hundreds of thousands of wells, so we've got not only the expertise of companies, but also the expertise within our population,” Smith said.Although geothermal power currently remains more expensive than natural gas, Smith said costs could eventually fall below those of hydroelectric and nuclear power.“Ninety percent of our power grid on a given day is normally powered by natural gas,” Smith said.“Geothermal still comes in a little bit more expensive than that, but if we can get to these depths that we're talking about, it's probably more cost-effective than hydro, more cost-effective than nuclear, and really deployable anywhere with a relatively small footprint.”.Oilpatch gushing over geothermal future in Saskatchewan.When asked by Dr. Marit Brommer, CEO of the International Geothermal Association, where she saw Alberta in ten years' time regarding its role in the future of energy, the premier pointed to Alberta’s history of energy innovation as evidence that technological breakthroughs can spread rapidly once they become commercially viable.“We have demonstrated that we have expertise in this technology and our entrepreneurs don't give up until they find a solution,” she said.“When they find the solution, it can get deployed incredibly quickly, and it can be transformative in a very short period of time.”However, Smith acknowledged Alberta will need to roughly double its power grid to 25,000 megawatts from its current capacity of about 12,500 megawatts in the years ahead due to population growth and increasing electrification demand.“I don't want to say that we're going to take the lead over Iceland, but it might be possible,” Smith said, noting Iceland's status as a world leader in geothermal energy but also pointing out that it serves a much smaller population and energy market.“We're highly motivated to find this new solution and make it a significant part of our future. It'd be great, and we hope that the technologies we develop here will be useful around the entire globe.”
