In a recent article by Merran Smith on the Clean Energy Canada website, she cites a survey that indicates 61% of British Columbians want the government to invest in clean energy.
The survey also indicates that the government's focus on LNG is not something a majority want to see. They would rather the government focus on clean forms of energy. It is time I think to start to focus on some of our greatest sources of renewable clean energy. One of which is geothermal power plants.
Geothermal power plants are the cheapest form of constant renewable energy on the planet. Unlike hydropower, which not only produces methane, but destroys what little arable land we do have in the province, geothermal power has an extremely small footprint and does not pollute. So why would this not appear in this article?
Unlike dams, in a drastically changing climate, they are not impacted by lack of water nor the impacts of too much water. In an earthquake in the hundreds of countries that use geothermal power, they are usually the only source of power that is not damaged.
We are on the ring of fire, so our ability to use the hundreds of hot spots around the province to produce energy is greater than any other province. However, with the advancements in geothermal plant technology, in addition to “Flash Plants” which are dependent on hot water sources, we now have closed-loop geothermal power plants.
Closed-loop power plants can operate with no need for a hot water source, using just the heat from the ground. In fact, in Alberta, they are using this method to convert abandoned wells into small geothermal power plants. These plants will permanently produce electricity. In addition to this, they will stop the release of methane from these orphan wells into the atmosphere.
In BC there are 346 orphan wells, just imagine the electrical capacity this resource might push into our grid. It might out produce any dam we are considering.
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