Canada’s first large-scale geothermal power plant gets the green light

Saskatchewan’s DEEP Earth Energy Production Corp. says construction will begin this year on Canada’s first commercial-scale facility for producing electricity from geothermal heat.

The privately held company announced Feb. 6 that procurement and engineering work has already begun on the 25-megawatt power facility in southeast Saskatchewan, close to the U.S. border, which will be built in two phases — supported in part by a five-megawatt power purchase agreement with Saskpower.

“We are a go,” said DEEP Earth chief executive Kirsten Marcia in a release. “There is a market that is hungry for truly sustainable, renewable power projects. The technology is proven, the leases are in place and initial government funding is confirmed.”

Construction and drilling will begin in the fourth quarter of this year, with the first electricity production expected by the summer of 2024. The facility is estimated to be capable of producing enough power for 25,000 households once it is complete.

DEEP Earth’s project will use oilfield-honed drilling techniques, with wells drilled to a depth of about 3.5 kilometres and horizontally for an additional three kilometres. Similar well designs are routinely used in the oil and gas sector, but application of these techniques to renewables is relatively new, the company said.

“Wells with equivalent depth, lateral length and step out are routinely drilled in the hydrocarbon resource plays of the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin and DEEP will be leveraging this local knowledge and drilling capability,” it said.

The announcement represents a key turning-point for Canada’s nascent geothermal power industry which remains underdeveloped despite the country’s abundant potential.

DEEP Earth has been working to develop the project since it was founded in 2010. The company began drilling test wells in 2018 and has acquired the subsurface leases to support multiple power facilities capable of more than 200 megawatts of power generation. The company is also exploring the possibility of using some of its subsurface lease for carbon dioxide storage underground.