A Royal Roads University research program to draw vast amounts of geothermal energy from deep within the Earth’s crust got a $3-million injection of funds on Tuesday.
The university’s Cascade Institute said the donations from three philanthropic donors — the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, Founders Pledge’s Climate Change Fund and Rethink Charity Foundation’s RC Forward Climate Change Fund — will seed a first-of-its-kind study in Canada into ultra-deep geothermal energy extraction.
The institute said deep drilling has the potential to provide an unlimited, renewable supply of net-zero power, nearly anywhere on the planet.
“There’s enough energy beneath us to power the entire world thousands of times over indefinitely into the future — enabling any kind of society humanity may want to build,” said Cascade Institute executive director Thomas Homer-Dixon.
“This energy is close by, but hard to get to. The Cascade Institute is working to tap that power.”
Geothermal power taps thermal energy radiating from the Earth’s interior to the surface, conducted through subsurface rocks and fluids.
The heat is accessed by drilling into hot rock and channelling heat-bearing water back to the surface through a production well to generate electricity.
“Today, we can do this only where natural reservoirs of hot water lie close to the surface — generally less than five kilometres deep — but the true prize lies eight to 15 kilometres down in hard rock with supercritical temperatures, where there’s enough energy to potentially meet the world’s future electrical needs thousands of times over,” said the institute.
The Cascade Institute’s geothermal findings in Canada will contribute to a global program.
Cascade Institute geophysicist Rebecca Pearce said Canada has to seize its geothermal opportunity, as other countries are already doing.
A recent position paper by the institute provides a road map for Canada to capture the technological opportunity.
The Cascade Institute will bring together a consortium to develop the test site model and seek financing for the project. The plan is to then provide research and analysis to guide tech companies, investors and the public sector in ultra-deep geothermal development and secure intellectual property rights to promote stakeholder collaboration.
Tuesday’s funding allows vital research to proceed to reach those next steps, said Pearce.
The institute said geothermal power can help achieve a national commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050 to address the climate crisis.
“Geothermal is one of the most important levers we have in developing clean power resources for the energy transition,” said Caroline de Bossart, director of the Boston-based Grantham Foundation.
SoonKhen OwYong, co-executive director of the Vancouver-based Rethink Charity Foundation, added: “We think that ultra-deep geothermal research is widely neglected compared to other climate change solutions and has a great potential to be a solution to our climate woes. We hope that this grant will help encourage more collaboration between public-private investments in Canada.”
