SASKATOON – A Saskatoon company is planning on using funding to study Saskatchewan’s geothermal potential and have a plant producing green energy in the near future.
Natural Resources Canada and SaskPower intend on contributing $2.2 million to Saskatoon’s DEEP Earth Energy Production Corp. (DEEP) for a study on the economic and technical viability of geothermal energy in southeast Saskatchewan.
DEEP intends to pursue a five megawatt (MW) binary geothermal power plant that would be located near Estevan and would generate power from a hot aquifer located 3 km under the surface.
Five megawatts is roughly the power required by 5,000 homes.
The plant would offset 40,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide per year or the equivalent of taking 8,016 cars off the road.
If the Front End Engineering Design (FEED) study proves successful, DEEP hopes it will lead to the development of multiple geothermal plants over the next decade.
“This first project could launch a brand new sustainable power supply industry for Canada. The United States is the number one geothermal power producer in the world, and geothermal opportunities do not end at the border,” said Kirsten Marcia, President and CEO of DEEP.
Geothermal generates power is virtually non-stop, reliable and according to DEEP, has the smallest footprint of all the renewable power sources.
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