Fossil Fuels Still Subsidized $3.80 per gallon?

A study published in the World Development journal has found that 6.5 percent of the worlds GDP goes to subsidizing fossil fuel. If we were to put this subsidy towards green energy imagine how quickly we could transition. Imagine if the fossil fuel companies put their profits toward green energy rather than more exploration or expansion. If we were to include the costs of pollution into the cost of fossil fuel you would have to add $3.80 to every gallon of gasoline and $4.80 to every gallon of diesel according to a study by Drew T. Shindell (former NASA, now Professor at Duke University). Similar costs are associated with coal and gas.
What does this mean in terms of electric cars? Even if an electric car was power through a coal plant the cost of operation would be less than half that of a gas car.
A good article on this report and be found through this link.

Fight Methane Crisis by Making Green Energy

Why We Need to Act

Methane our most dangerous greenhouse gas is 85 times worse than carbon dioxide. Reducing methane emissions is the fastest and cheapest way to reduce climate change. Not only that but with the Methane leaks, there are also carcinogenic chemicals being released as well, such as benzenes. 

We know from research in BC that the leakage is 2.5 times higher than what the Government reports list. In Alberta, the research indicates a 60% higher rate of release than the industry claims. 

What are the Benefits

Aside from the obvious benefit that we are going to reduce one of our worse greenhouse gases thus making an effort toward trying to slow down climate change, there are other benefits to this as well:

• In Alberta alone regulating methane would create 1,500 jobs immediately in the province. The only opposition against this at the moment is from the industry.
• The Canadian government estimates that the regulation of methane would result in a net benefit of 11.7 billion dollars, resulting from lower climate change impacts. The net saving to the health system is not included in this figure.
• The current methane loss per year is 55 million tons, enough to heat 200,000 homes for one year.

What Needs to be Done

The Minister can make this change by simply modifying the existing regulations to move that dates of compliance forward, no legislation required. They can also increase the frequency of inspections so they are as rigorous the US or better. Also, this regulation should apply to all wells currently single wells are exempt and well as oil facilities, both should regulate these serious omissions in the regulation.  

The Best Solution

This article from Green Energy illustrations how you can create 100 Megawatts from one abandoned oil well and stop the methane leakage at the same time. Even marginal wells can be used to produce one to three Megawatts. Of course, the power is produced 24 hours a day seven days a week.

This technology does the following:

• Taps energy that conventional technology can not use.
• Delivers scalable electric power
• Provides continuous yet flexible power for grid stability
• Provides green energy with no gas emissions, waste stream, explosives, dangerous chemicals, visual obstructions, and no possibility of ground water contamination.

To read article click here.

Illustration courtesy of Green Energy

The Enormous Potential for Geothermal Power Plants in British Columbia

The Canadian Geothermal Energy Association has a number of reports on the extensive energy potential of British Columbia, we never need to build a dam again and the costs of using this energy are less than a 1/3 of the cost of building a dam and with no environmental impact.

• British Columbia Geothermal Resource Estimate Key Findings.
• Geothermal Resource Estimate Maps of BC following a Global Protocol.

Geothermal Energy: The Renewable and Cost Effective Alternative to Hydro Dams

The Canadian Geothermal Energy Association (CanGEA) has produced a 60-page report assessing the geothermal potential of British Columbia. The report highlights how the provinces geothermal reserves are a much more cost effective alternative to the site C dam.

This report builds upon Joint Review Panel (JRP) of the Site C Clean Energy Hearings. The hearings concluded that: “a failure to pursue research over the last 30 years into B.C.’s geothermal resources has left BC Hydro without information about a resource the BC Hydro thinks may offer up to 700 megawatts of firm, economic power with low environmental costs.” 

CanGEA was granted interested party status at the JRP hearings, and this conclusion largely stems from CanGEA’s submissions. CanGEA considers this number, or 700 megawatts, low. To ensure the true value of geothermal energy is assessed, CanGEA has released The 10 Advantages of Geothermal Energy not Considered by BC Hydro or the Joint Review Panel. Seven of these are economic considerations and the other three address socioeconomic and environmental considerations.

Massive Green Energy Find in Abandoned Alberta Oil Wells!

The Canadian Geothermal Energy Association has just produced a report on the geothermal potential of existing oil wells in Alberta. Alberta alone has 60,000 wells with geothermal potential, to produce electricity for our grid, as well as heat towns and greenhouses.
The report lists the well sites who owns them and what towns they are near the wells.

The report can be read by clicking here.

Produce 100 Megawatts of Electricity from One Abandon Well

This technology does the following:

• Taps energy that conventional technology can not use.
• Delivers scalable electric power
• Provides continuous yet flexible power for grid stability
• Provides green energy with no gas emissions, waste stream, explosives, dangerous chemicals, visual obstructions, and no possibility of ground water contamination.

To read article click here.

Illustration courtesy of Green Energy

British Columbia May Have a “Trillion Dollar Opportunity” with Geothermal Power by Roy L Hales

Link to original article

November 6th, 2014 by  

An interview with Alison Thompson, Chair of the Canadian Geothermal Association

Originally Published in the ECOreport

British Columbia may have a “Trillion Dollar Opportunity,” and it is NOT LNG.*  There are more than 150 known hot springs in Western Canada. Look at the map below, most of the high generation temperature areas are in BC! According to Alison Thompson, Chair of the Canadian Geothermal Association, there is more than enough geothermal energy to power the province’s grid, yet none of these sites have been developed. Geothermal energy has never been invited to bid on calls for power. In fact, there isn’t a single developed geothermal site in all of Canada!

“Hot springs are great for the direct use of geothermal, but for power you’d have to drill,” Thompson explained. “Of course the hot springs are a surface manifestation that leads you to prospect in that area.”

Borealis Geopower has two prospective sites for +/- 15 MWe power plants in BC. The Federal government and First Nations both support the development of the Lakelse Lake site, but the province has yet to come to the table. The Canoe Reach Project is at the end of a transmission line and the nearby city of Valemount is experiencing routine brown-outs! They want to use the water left over from production for a community greenhouse and could also use it for public hot springs facilities.

There are many direct use applications, which do not need power. The heat from geothermal has been used for lumber drying, green housing, fish farming, milk pasteurization.

“On our mission down to Klamath Falls we visited a geothermal brewery that uses the heat from geothermal for the fermentation process,” Thompson said.

“If you look at what similarly geologic settings have, the sky’s the limit for BC,” she added. “We certainly have thousands and thousands of megawatts beneath our feet. We have so much of it that it truly could provide the province’s needs.”

Thompson added that it would be cheaper to develop geothermal than LNG and the jobs that came through it would be fairly evenly distributed throughout communities and First Nations.

“Looking at a statistic from the US Department of Energy, the comparison between a natural gas plant and a geothermal plant,  geothermal is usually lower for power price and we offer ten times the employment,” Thompson said.

Geothermal is also a good baseline power source, permitting the incorporation of more intermittent renewable energies into the grid.

“If someone was able to come online at a lower cost, you would just not use geothermal for those moments in time,” said Thompson. “Our ability to ramp up is as good, or better, than hydro. We really are a grid stabilizing feature and at a competitive cost, so perhaps you may want to turn off hydro and keep geothermal running.”

Looking south across the border, the US Energy Information Agency (EIA) says:

There are currently 64 operating conventional geothermal power plants in the United States, accounting for nearly 2,700 megawatts (MW) of total capacity at the end of 2013. Over three-fourths of U.S. geothermal power generation in 2013 was in California, largely because of favourable geothermal resources, policy, and market conditions in the state. The largest group of geothermal power plants in the world, a complex called the Geysers, located in Northern California, has more than 700 MW of capacity.

…. Geothermal plants are virtually emissions free, and unlike renewable sources such as wind and solar, they provide an available, dispatchable source of baseload power that is able to operate at a relatively high capacity factor….

There are 160 American projects in development that have a similar geology to BC.

EIA projects that America’s geothermal electricity generation could more than quadruple between 2012 and 2040, increasing to over 67,000 GWh.

Italy has been using geothermal energy for over a century. New Zealand, Iceland and California have utilized it for the past 50 years.

“This is just low-cost base load energy that, for most people is comparable to hydro,” Thompson said.  “There are 25 countries using geothermal power and they, too, have hydro. It isn’t a competition, it is a complimentary thing to build for your system.”

B C knows Geothermal is a Clean, Low-Cost Option

BC Hydro has been aware of geothermal energy since at least 1983. On page 229 of  the Joint Review Panel Report for the controversial site C dam it says, “BC Hydro, in its IRP, said that ‘geothermal appears to be a low-cost resource option,’ and ‘BC’s geothermal resource is estimated to total more than 700 MW of potentially cost-effective clean or renewable power.’

Given the opposition to site C in the Peace River Valley and the fact thousands of acres of valuable farm land will be submerged if the project goes forward, it seems shocking to read BC Hydro said they were “not expected” to explore this option.

So why has British Columbia not developed ANY geothermal?

A spokesperson for BC’s Ministry of Energy and Mines said, “12 geothermal permits have been issued in recent years. Despite its relatively low cost, developers have not bid into the system primarily due to the high upfront costs and risks associated with exploring for and pinpointing geothermal resources.”

Thompson had a different explanation, “Of the 25 countries currently using geothermal power, BC is worst in class for its legislation. While there have been bright spots recently and there are two permitted projects CanGEA members are trying to further, it is not an easy system to navigate. There are different ministries involved. With the last election now there's another ministry involved. There is the Natural Gas Ministry, the Energy Ministry and BC Hydro – a lot of bureaucracy and very little streamlining, and very little intent by the government to make geothermal a reality.

“We’d like to see them use their geothermal as a tool to stimulate industry, not as a barrier to keep the industry at bay,” she added.

Most developers are going to less restrictive countries.

“At one point, before the financial market collapsed, there had been a billion dollars raised on the Toronto Stock Exchange and all but $25 million of that billion went to projects outside Canada,”  said Thompson.

Listen to my interview with Alison Thompson, and Justin Crewson, of CanGEA in the podcast below (was originally broadcast on the ECOreport radio program).

* A reference to Premier Christy Clark’s oft repeated boast that LNG is BC’s “trillion dollar opportunity.”

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All illustrations courtesy CanGEA

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Tags: Alison Thompson, BC Hydro, Borealis Geopower, British Colombia, California, Canada, Canadian Geothermal Association, CanGEA, Canoe Reach Project, First Nations, geothermal in BC, Iceland, Italy, Klamath Falls, Lakelse Lake, Ministry of Energy and Mines, Natural Gas Ministry, New Zealand, Peace River Valley, Premier Christy Clark, US Department of Energy, US Energy Information Agency, USA

About the Author

Roy L Hales is the editor of the ECOreport (www.theecoreport.com), a website dedicated to exploring how our lifestyle choices and technologies affect the West Coast of North America and write for both CleanTechnica and Planetsave on Important Media. He is a research junkie who has written over a thousand articles since he was first published in 1982. Roy lives on Cortes Island, BC, Canada.