The feasibility and potential of geothermal heat in the deep Alberta foreland basin-Canada for CO2 savings

Jacek Majorowicz and Michal Moore

Renewable Energy, 2014, vol. 66, issue C, 541-549

Abstract: The identification, mapping and evaluation of geothermal resources are an important component of a diversified and resilient energy system. Geothermal resources offer an important series of contributions from direct (low temperature) heat to electric generation (from EGS or Enhanced Geothermal Systems). While not ideal, Alberta has a wide range of subsurface heat resources that are coincident with load and can be developed in the future at reasonable cost. We assess that geothermal energy output from sources at depth for temperature range between 120 and 150 °C accessed from 4 to 5 km wells in very western portions of the Alberta basin can be as competitive as gas burning even at these prices. For the 5 km depth and 150 °C, the cost of thermal energy can be as low as 2 $ per GJ thermal equivalence for expected EGS flow rates of 5–50 kg/s, with 30 year expected plant life. Replacement of gas heating utilizing EGS systems could form part of a long range target for industry emission reductions. For example, 1000 (2 wells each) heat generating systems across Alberta drawing 100 °C from deep wells in deep sedimentary basin or deep granites can save >30 MT CO2 per year. Oilsands operations generate some >40 MT per year and in Alberta more than 300,000 wells have been drilled by oil and gas industry.

Keywords: Geothermal energy; Canadian geothermal; Heat flow; CO2; Natural gas (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148114000159
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:66:y:2014:i:c:p:541-549

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2013.12.044

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().