New energy

July 30, 2008

ISEEE research shows Alberta has significant potential new energy source

Alberta has a sizeable new and clean potential energy source—deep underground heat that could produce electricity and steam, research by the Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment and Economy (ISEEE) shows.

In an ISEEE study funded by the Alberta Energy Research Institute, researchers mapped the geothermal temperature zones in Alberta at depths ranging from one to 10 kilometres. They used mainly existing well log data, collected during the drilling of oil and gas wells, to produce their maps.

“The potential in Alberta for enhanced geothermal systems is larger than we thought,” says Michal Moore, ISEEE senior fellow and co-author of the report with Jacek Majorowicz, a consulting geologist in Edmonton. “It looks attractive enough as a resource and as a baseload power source that we ought to further investigate it, by drilling some new wells to confirm the data obtained from the historical oil and gas well logs.”

Commercial-scale enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) could generate enough electricity to forestall the building of new coal-fired power plants in Alberta and provide sufficient steam for use in in situ oil sands operations, Moore says.

“We believe that if the temperatures available were hot enough and at a sufficient depth— at least 200 degrees Centigrade and 6,000 metres deep—this might be attractive in the future to offset some coal-fired power plants or other fossil-based electric generation.”

Geothermal energy is part of the strategy of the Alberta Energy Research Institute (AERI), the strategic energy technology arm of the Alberta government.

“This study has laid the foundation for geothermal energy in Alberta and set the stage for field studies to establish the technical and economic feasibility of geothermal energy,” says Eddy Isaacs, AERI’s executive director. “Geothermal sources of energy have the potential to be an important contributor to Alberta’s future energy mix.”

Enhanced geothermal systems are different than the naturally occurring hydro (water) geothermal systems, such as Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park or geysers in California. EGS are much deeper than hydro geothermal systems, and are engineered by drilling into typically dry, compact formations of hot rock.

These zones must be fractured or opened up using hydraulic methods, and then flooded by pumping or injecting water or some other fluid into them. The fluid is then extracted from the hot rock through a production well, and this heat can be used at the surface to spin a turbine or produce hot water or steam.

A commercial EGS is operating at Soultz, France, and one has started operating in Australia. However, there are no commercial systems in North America.

Moore says there are several technological challenges to drilling so deep—including being able to accurately target the hot rock zones, and hydraulically fracturing the rock in a consistent way to provide a sufficient flow of liquid through the rock formations and adequate connection between an injection and a production well or multiple wells.

The cost of drilling one six-kilometre deep well is about US$7.8 million (in 2005 dollars), according to a report on enhanced geothermal systems by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, of which Moore is an author. “We think that the costs for EGS, with some continued research and development, would be driven down within 15 years to a cost that’s comparable with new conventional sources of baseload electricity, such as coal or nuclear,” he says.

The seismically active Rainbow Lake area in northwest Alberta is the most promising for exploring EGS, based on the rock heat zone maps. Some zones beneath the oilsands near Fort McMurray might be hot enough to pre-heat water used to make steam for in situ oilsands operations – which would reduce the cost of using natural gas to heat the water.

Many aging nuclear and coal-fired plants that provide baseload electricity throughout North America will be decommissioned within the next two decades, and climate change could cause water shortfalls for hydro-power generation, Moore notes.

“We don’t really know whether we’re going to have adequate baseload capacity to meet demands, or enough hydro to firm our power loads. It’s worth knowing about EGS just to have a reservation supply that you’ve identified, and to put in your calculations on what a future grid is going to look like.”

Using EGS would also help Alberta reduce its greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. These reductions could yield valuable ‘green’ energy credits as regional and global carbon-trading markets develop, Moore says.

Moore is available to the media today from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m., at (403) 220-4386. The ISEEE research report, Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) Potential in the Alberta Basin, is available at www.ucalgary.ca/~wenet or www.aeri.ab.ca

MEDIA CONTACT
Mark Lowey, Communications Director
Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment and Economy
Phone: (403) 210-8659
Cell: (403) 990-6986
Email: mlowey@ucalgary.ca