Alberta
Once again, representatives of CanGEA were in attendance to rub shoulders with leaders in the energy industry, raising the opportunity for geothermal energy development in Alberta. ​

Federal
​CanGEA polled our membership and the broader industry to showcase the growth and progress of our sector. Thank you to all who participated in the survey.

British Columbia
The BC Government has announced their intention to undertake a review of the Environmental Assessment Act in late 2024. As required by the Act, it must be reviewed within five years of coming into force. The Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) has vowed to consult with industry associations to “help identify successes, challenges and potential areas of focus for the review.” The EAO will be reaching out to us this summer—we invite CanGEA Policy Level members to provide input to [email protected].

Alberta
Alberta announced temporary measures back in March which come into effect on July 2nd.  The temporary rules will limit the practice of economic withholding to lower power prices for consumers. In the Government’s own words, “Economic withholding was designed as a legitimate tool to encourage new investment in the province’s power market. The slightly higher prices that economic withholding causes in the short-term attracts new competitors to Alberta, leading to lower prices in the long-term. That all changed when the accelerated phaseout of baseload coal, and emphasis on intermittent renewables, altered Alberta’s supply mix. The negative impacts of economic withholding would normally be offset by having adequate competition in the market. However, the accelerated coal phaseout significantly increased the impact of economic withholding on ratepayers, beyond the original intent of the policy.”
 
The regulatory response in the meantime includes:

• Limiting the offer price for large generators if their net revenues exceed a monthly predefined threshold.
• Requiring natural gas power plants to be online in times of high demand if there is not enough power supply to meet Alberta’s needs.

 
CanGEA will continue to advocate for the longer-term solution – that generators of baseload renewable energy be paid and/or incentivized to develop and maintain dispatchable 24/7 electricity.
 
Government press release on the temporary measures here.

CanGEA has finalized policy proposals for the Federal Government, Alberta, and British Columbia. CanGEA members can read our draft here and Policy-level members are invited to provide feedback before the draft is finalized in August 2024. This paper will serve as our base advocacy priorities moving forward.

Alberta
Naheed Nenshi brings experience in municipal governance, serving as Calgary’s mayor from 2010 to 2021. He holds as Master of Public Policy from Harvard and worked for McKinsey & Company before starting his own consulting firm. On energy issues, he has said:

• “When it comes to the energy transition, Alberta can and should be leading. The world should look to us for the best climate change solutions and as the producer of the world’s most sustainable energy - conventional and renewable.”
• “We need to put the supports in place that allow Alberta to be a leader of sustainable energy.”
• He says he will, “Protect and expand Alberta’s position as an energy superpower in oil & gas and renewables while reaching net-zero emissions no later than 2050.”

Federal
On June 21, the Government of Canada passed Bill-C59, which includes the Clean Technology Investment Tax Credit that includes geothermal heat and electricity projects. We covered the details of this ITC in prior newsletters.
 
We commend the Government for their forward-thinking approach to our energy future and would encourage energy developers across Canada, and abroad, to consider adding Canadian geothermal projects to their portfolio, in light of this new incentive.
 
More information and claiming instructions are available here.

This year’s WING Canada event smashed previous attendance records—with stakeholders in Canada’s geothermal industry in attendance from Alberta, other provinces, and even other countries.  CanGEA’s Chair, Alison Thompson, participated in the panel – raising the opportunity for geothermal to become Canada’s “furnace,” with participation in policy development from industry to effectively advocate for government policy alignment. CanGEA members can read her remarks here.

Alberta
On June 10, CanGEA met with Minister Rebecca Schulz and her team to pitch the opportunity of reducing emissions and diversifying Alberta’s energy portfolio by switching to direct-use of geothermal heat in compatible heat-intensive industrial processes. While accessing geothermal resources poses little risk, the engineering challenges of retrofitting existing natural gas systems to instead accommodate geothermal heat would require government support. CanGEA Policy-level members can read our policy memo here.

Federal
Clean Technology Investment Tax Credit (ITC):
The 2022 Fall Economic Statement introduced the initial details of the Clean Technology ITC. Mentioned eligible clean technology equipment included systems relating to storage, heat pumps, nuclear, and solar—notably absent was geothermal energy. Immediately, CanGEA began a campaign to ensure geothermal energy systems would be included legislative drafts of the Clean Technology ITC. After a series of half-a-dozen meetings with both sides of the aisle and dozens more communications beginning in late 2022, in the Spring of 2023, Minister Guilbeault announced the expanded eligibility of the Clean Technology ITC to include geothermal energy systems, as is also contained in Budget 2023.
 
The Clean Technology ITC will be a refundable tax credit of up to 30% of investments in eligible property acquired on or after March 28, 2023. Eligible equipment includes, “(v)equipment used exclusively for the purpose of generating electrical energy or heat energy, or a combination of electrical energy and heat energy, solely from geothermal energy, that is described in subparagraph (d)‍(vii) of Class 43.‍1 in Schedule II to the Income Tax Regulations, but excluding any equipment that is part of a system that extracts fossil fuel for sale.” If labour requirements (prevailing wage and apprenticeship conditions) are not satisfied, the tax credit rate would drop by 10 percentage points.
 
This ITC was introduced in the House of Commons on November 30, 2023 as part of a broader package (C-59) to implement provisions of the Fall Economic Statement. The bill is currently in it’s third (final) reading in the House and in Senate pre-study, thus likely to be passed into law this year’s session.
 
To claim the Clean Technology ITC for your eligible properties, first C-59 must become finalized legislation (likely this fall); then, we are expecting an updated Schedule 31 ITC form for corporations in which the amount of the ITC you are claiming would be entered on a pending line 155. See here for more details.
 
Clean Electricity Investment Tax Credit (ITC):
A 15% refundable tax credit rate for eligible investments in new equipment or refurbishments in low-emitting electricity generation systems using energy from wind, solar, water, geothermal, waste biomass, nuclear, or natural gas with carbon capture and storage. The latest details and language for this proposed ITC were introduced Budget 2024. Legislative drafts are expected to be introduced in the Fall of 2024.
Consultation period for these developing tax credits with respect to specific design details is still open.

Federal
The report examines shifts needed to enable Canada’s electricity decarbonization medium and long-term goals—addressing the critical challenge of decarbonizing the grid while growing capacity and expanding reliability and affordability at the same time. Proposed solutions included:

- Aligning roadmaps and pathway assessments with goals and mandates
- Streamlining construction permits and project approvals, for faster, more efficient build-out.
- Leveraging intra-provincial transmission, which is still largely unutilized.
- Developing a Clean Electricity Strategy will be a next step in achieving these goals.

Not emphasized in the report was the question of where our expanded clean electricity generation will come from. Critical to meeting these goals would be encouraging Renewable Portfolio Standards in the Provinces; the Federal government could set the example by mandating an RPS for Federal agencies—with a requirement specifically for geothermal-electricity procurement on a reasonable timeline.

Alberta
​CanGEA had the pleasure of attending a networking open house hosted by staff of the Ministry of Energy and Minerals in Calgary. The event was a significant occasion for CanGEA to meet and foster connections with ministry staff and energy industry counterparts to raise awareness and increase the visibility of the geothermal opportunity in Alberta. 

The event, hosted by the Clean Resource Innovation Network (CRIN), brought together more than a dozen geothermal developers and stakeholder to discuss barriers to growth in the industry. Critically, a key takeaway from the discussion was the need for industry unity and a vehicle to advocate for policy reform on consensus issues.

Alberta
As a continuation of our progress with the Affordability and Utilities Minister, CanGEA also pursued a discussion with the Minister of Environment and Protected Areas regarding how geothermal heat can be used to fuel switch industrial process heating away from burning natural gas. Beyond the economic and energy security benefits of this strategy, pertinent to the portfolio of Environment and Protected Areas, the initiative would reduce carbon emissions and improve local air quality. A meeting has since been set for June 10. 

Policy-level members can our request letter here. 

Alberta
CanGEA’s Chair and Policy Manager met with Minister Neudorf and his advisory team on May 1, 2024. The goal of the meeting was to surface the opportunity of geothermal heat as a utility – something to focus on other than the complexities and challenges of Alberta’s electricity grid and market. Minister Neudorf and his team are amenable to the idea of sponsoring a direct-use of geothermal heat project to get the industry going on the right foot and have committed to initial exploratory discussions with a potential customer and utilities regarding interest and feasibility.

Policy-level members can see our memo to the Minister here.