CanGEA Submissions Feedback on the Renewables Moratorium to the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC)

Alberta
The submission addresses some of the key concerns that the Alberta government is seeking to rectify and address with the moratorium.

With respect the general reclamation security requirements and land reclamation concerns, CanGEA stressed that requirements should not be any more stringent than what they already are for subsurface energy projects. We also emphasised that geothermal sites will remain in operation for decades, and in terms of energy output, only very few geothermal sites are needed to make significant baseload contributions to our energy mix relative to wind/solar sites and take up significantly less land in terms of square footage. Additionally, the Alberta Government already has reclamation Guidelines for Renewable Energy Operations.

With respect to impacts on “pristine viewscapes,” CanGEA asserts that this is a subjective notion and that geothermal energy projects, being a subsurface resource, for both direct-use and power have only marginal impacts on viewscapes relative to other energy sources. Furthermore, any restrictions on projects based on concerns over "pristine viewscapes” should align with what is already established in the oil and gas industry. For example, the western backdrop of many west-central oil and gas sites and power plants could be perceived as “pristine.”

Additionally, we clarified that emissions reduction, job creation, sustainable development, energy diversification/security, and increased GDP—via cascading geothermal power generation and direct uses of geothermal “waste” heat from the geothermal power plants to greenhouses, livestock barns, crop drying, etc.—are all higher priorities than viewscapes.

With respect to grid reliability, geothermal energy is one of the only feasible and economical baseload renewable power options available, and Alberta happens to have immediately accessible geothermal resources (low-hanging fruit) that have yet to be developed.