Canada Is Frustratingly Slow at Adopting Geothermal Energy

Check out this fancy diorama explaining geothermal energy. via WikiCommons.

Geothermal isn’t the easiest clean energy source to comprehend. It doesn’t rotate the white blades of a wind turbine, or light the surface of a solar panel. Most of the action happens deep underground and out of sight. In case you have no idea what I’m talking about, here’s what those of you without a degree in geology need to know. The Earth’s molten core is really, really hot. Up to 5,000 degrees Celsius, actually, or about 88 times warmer than the hottest global temperature every recorded (a scorching 1913 summer day in Death Valley, California).

As heat radiates outwards from Earth’s core, it warms vast underground pools of water. Drill down into those pools, pull steam to the surface in a pipe, use the steam to drive powerful turbines and voila! You get one the world’s cleanest and most reliable forms of energy. In Alberta alone, there’s enough geothermal energy stored beneath prairie and forest to power every household in the province, and do it with almost no negative impact on the ever-growing threat of climate change.

Twenty-four countries across the world are producing enough geothermal energy to meet the electricity needs of 60 million people. But right now Canada isn’t one of them. Canadians have some of the planet’s highest quality geothermal energy right underneath their feet, proponents point out, and not a single commercial plant capable of tapping it. What gives? “It’s really hard for us,” Alison Thompson, chair and founder of the Canadian Geothermal Energy Association (or CanGEA), told me, “just trying to convince the federal government this is a good idea.”

So for the next two months, CanGEA will be trying to convince regular Canadians instead. The Calgary-based industry group just launched the country’s first ever crowd-funding campaign for clean energy on Indiegogo.com. It hopes to raise a minimum of $50,000 (and as much as $500,000) to put geothermal on “even footing” with better-known alternatives like wind and solar—as well as the oil, gas and coal industries that are ruining Earth’s climate.

It won’t be easy. From September 2011 to September 2012, Canada’s Conservative government met nearly 800 times with lobbyists representing the Alberta oil sands and other polluting fuel sources, the Ottawa-based Polaris Institute calculated. “Corporate lobbying by the petroleum industry in Canada is staggering,” it concluded. CanGEA would be happy to even get a single meeting. “I’ve been waiting two months now to speak with one minister,” Thompson said. “It’s just such an unequal playing field.”

CanGEA’s solution to that dilemma could represent a landmark in crowd-funding history. Proceeds from its Indiegogo campaign (assuming they’re high enough) will be used to pay the salary of a full-time geothermal lobbyist in Ottawa. “Our approach is novel,” Thompson admitted. That lobbyist would come armed with some alarming trivia. Like the fact that in 2010, for instance, the Canadian companies belonging to CanGEA produced 20 percent of the planet’s geothermal energy, outside Canada’s borders.

The Conservative government hasn’t been totally M.I.A. when it comes to making a geothermal energy a Canadian reality. An arms-length federal agency invested $2.4 million earlier this year in a geothermal exploration project. “Our Government is doing its part,” natural resources minister Joe Oliver said at the time, “to help protect our environment and create high-quality jobs.” The department, a spokesperson wrote to me in an email, has “undertaken significant research” to move the industry forward.

Still, the United States by contrast leads the planet with 175 geothermal facilities in development. The industry produces enough electricity to power about three cities the size of Seattle. Meanwhile, a Calgary-based geothermal developer remarked earlier this year, Canada ranks “at the very bottom of the list when compared to other nations.” Price is one factor holding the industry back. A relatively modest geothermal power plant can cost upwards of $100 million. But once it’s up and running, the actual electricity it produces is cheaper than most other sources.

Right now, CanGEA is most concerned with the money trickling in from Canadians. At the time we hit “Publish” on this blog post, their Indiegogo campaign had raised nearly $3,000 towards its initial $50,000 goal. “It’s an interesting experiment,” Canadian clean energy expert Tyler Hamilton wrote recently.  “[CanGEA] may very well not meet its fundraising goal. But even if it doesn’t, it will have made a strong point.” Which is? One of the best options for fighting climate change might be right below our feet. And if the federal government is not willing to take that opportunity, then organizations like CanGEA will be forced to rely on regular Canadians instead.

Follow Geoff on Twitter: @GeoffDembicki

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