If Site C goes ahead, we’d see the culmination of a plan that was developed in the 1950s. Rather than continuing to rely on an outdated, postwar vision of energy development, we can embrace new options. Geothermal power is one of the best.
Accessing geothermal resources involves drilling down into subterranean pools of hot water or steam, a process requiring the kind of expertise that exists in our oil and gas industry. The most familiar geothermal applications provide space heating for homes and offices.
Using geothermal reservoirs for the large-scale, commercial production of electricity is still a fairly new process in North America. At a typical project site, a group of wells are connected to a central production plant. The heat drawn from the earth turns generators, creating electricity.
In British Columbia, we live along the Pacific-Rim earthquake zone where moving tectonic plates bring molten rock and water closer to the earth’s surface, enhancing the potential for geothermal extraction. Canada is “the only country” on this “ring of fire” that “has not developed its high-temperature geothermal resources on a commercial scale” (Hamilton, “Canada’s Ground Temperatures Rising,” Toronto Star, 2009).
The United States is leading the way. In December 2006, there were 61 geothermal power plants operating in five western states. Such plants typically vary in size from 10 to 260 megawatts. The Calpine plant that appears above-left is in the Mayacama Mountains of California, 72 miles north of San Francisco, amid a field of steam reservoirs known as "the Geysers."
In total, the US has nearly 3,000 megawatts of geothermal capacity. This is a small fraction of the national energy supply, but geothermal power could meet 13.9% of all new US demand by 2015. Within this same time frame, geothermal could also meet over a quarter of total energy consumption in “hot” states such as Nevada and Idaho (Research Reports International, Geothermal Power Generation, 2007, pp. 62-63)
Like any energy option, geothermal has drawbacks and benefits. One of the challenges is that reservoirs can be hard to locate, especially in rugged volcanic terrain. This means that “costly exploration and confirmation drilling is necessary at the outset of a project to determine” the qualities of a potential site.
And “it is difficult to know with certainty how the industry will be governed in the future, so investment entails added risk” (BC Hydro, Green Energy Study, 2002, p. 21). Because geothermal resources are often in remote locations, a costly transmission infrastructure may also need to be developed.
On the positive side, once a transmission infrastructure is in place, geothermal plants located around the province, designed to meet local demand, would increase the security of our energy supply.
Geothermal energy is also efficient. While some reservoirs may “run out of steam,” large pools tend to provide a consistent supply, allowing individual plants to operate near 100% capacity. This makes geothermal plants “ideally suited” to supply firm, “base-power requirements” (BC Hydro, Green Energy Study, 2002, p. 21).
Further, geothermal energy tends to be “environmentally benign.” Its land-based footprint is relatively light and C02 emissions are minimal, making it a genuinely green technology that presents an attractive solution to both climate change and environmental degradation.
All things considered, geothermal energy deserves serious consideration as a major resource option in BC, but you’d never know this after reading the deeply biased public consultation literature for Site C, which has little to say about geothermal as a promising resource alternative.
In tables listing BC's options, the Stage One Feasibility Review (pp. 18-19) and the Stage Two, Round One Discussion Guide (p. 8) completely ignore geothermal. A similar table in the Stage Two, Round Two Discussion Guide finally acknowledges geothermal, but only notes the “South Meager” project.
Conversely, BC Hydro’s own Green and Alternative Energy Division identifies sixteen potential sites around the province. Six of these offer the greatest opportunity for commercial development and could in total generate over 1,000 megawatts of power (Green Energy Study, 2002, p. 20).
Among the six most promising sites, Western Geopower’s South Meager project, in a volcanic field near Pemberton, about 175 kilometres north of Vancouver, is clearly in the lead. Results of exploration work indicate the presence of a large geothermal reservoir with an area of 4.5 to 7.5 km² and an average temperature of 220 to 240°C.
South Meager promises to be a major resource, with approximately 100 to 250 megawatts or more of potential development capacity, and could start production as early as 2010 (Pembina Institute online).
Although the Site C team would have us believe otherwise, we do have a mix of options and choices—choices that would enable us to save a beautiful valley with a rich history and important agricultural capability. Indeed, the Globe Foundation’s Endless Energy Report (2007) states that “in British Columbia the potential exists to generate a significant proportion of the province’s energy needs from geothermal resources” (p. 40).
Building big dams and flooding river valleys belong to the past. Geothermal energy is the way of the future.
0 comments:
Post a Comment