Alberta
At the event in Calgary on April 30, Environment and Protected Areas Minister, Rebecca Schulz, committed to $750,000 of public money to enable the private sector to establish an Alberta Drilling Accelerator to drive innovations in geothermal and establish Alberta’s position as a world leader in geothermal energy technologies.

“The proposed Alberta Drilling Accelerator presents enormous potential to help our province lead the next wave of energy projects here at home and around the world that reduce emissions, create jobs and enhance energy security,” said the Minister.

“Canada is home to the most advanced drilling technology in the world. Not only do our members support the responsible development of oil and gas, but we are integral in the extraction of new energy resources like geothermal and critical minerals,” said Mark Scholz, President and CEO, Canadian Association of Energy Contractors.

“The Alberta Drilling Accelerator is a testament to Alberta’s innovative and entrepreneurial spirit. Leveraging our oil and gas sector expertise, Alberta is poised to become the global leader in developing new geothermal technologies that will play an integral role in reducing emissions while supporting job creation,” said Alison Thompson, Chair, Canadian Geothermal Energy Association.

Full government press release is available here, and details regarding next steps will be communicated soon – boots on the ground are expected as early as next year.

Federal
Entitled, “Fairness for Every Generation,” the budget outlines major spending in housing (aiming for nearly four million homes built by 2031), social programs, defence, and the net-zero economy. The government proposes to pay for these initiatives by “asking the very wealthiest to pay their fair share,” which came in the form of several new tax measures to boost revenues. Canada's Budget 2024 projects a $39.8 billion deficit, bringing the national debt up to $1.4 trillion.  Debt servicing costs on these obligations will be $54.1 billion in 2024-25, more than the federal government spends on health transfers. This year’s Budget deficit marks the ninth in a row for Canada.

Chapter 4.2 of the Budget reiterates the government’s $90 million investment in next-generation geothermal company, and CanGEA member, Eavor Technologies. Additionally,  the budget includes:

• Provisions to ramp up clean electricity production—including a 15 per cent refundable tax credit rate for eligible investments including electricity generation systems from geothermal energy;
• Reiteration of the availability of the Clean Technology Investment Tax Credit;
• $7.4 million to Natural Resources Canada over five years to provide technical advice related to major economic investment tax credits and to support administration alongside the Canada Revenue Agency;
• $776.3 million over six years for the Clean Fuels Fund – NRCan to issue another call for proposals under this program.
• An expanded range of carbon contracts for difference and carbon offtake agreements, to be issued by the Canada Growth Fund with a current allotment of $6 billion;
• Up to $5 billion in loan guarantees for Indigenous Communities to invest in energy projects;
• $9 million over three years to the Privy Council Office’s Clean Growth Office to reduce inefficiencies and streamline permitting timelines and impact assessments;
• Renewal of the Canada-US Energy Transformation Task Force;
• $6.1 mullion over two years for the Clean Growth Hub – Canada’s main source of information and advice on federal funding and other supports for clean technology projects;
• Commitments to develop a taxonomy that is aligned with reaching net-zero by 2050.
  
  

Full budget available here. 

The Norwegian-Canadian Network for Virtual Research-Based Training and Blended Know-How Transfer in Geothermal Energy, so-called “Nor-Can Geo-Exchange”, proposed a collaborative effort between Norway and Canada to advance research, training, and knowledge transfer in the field of geothermal energy and asked CanGEA to endorse.  

Leveraging the expertise and resources of both nations, this initiative aims to address the educational challenges and training opportunities in geothermal energy sector through a strategic partnership among various stakeholders including universities, industry, and public enterprises such as NGOs. In other words, the Nor-Can Geo-Exchange aims to facilitate the exchange of knowledge, best practices, and technologies in geothermal energy between Norway and Canada by fostering collaboration among students, researchers, industry professionals, and policymakers. CanGEA has offered to facilitate connections between project agents and industry stakeholders, poll industry for feedback, and connect industry with academics and other stakeholders. CanGEA may also provide Canadian geothermal policy expertise as the project may require. 

CanGEA Policy-level members may view the letter here.

Alberta
​CanGEA, alongside representatives from Borealis Geothermal and Eavor Technologies, led initial discussions with the Regulator to determine collaborative actions to come up with a safe, development-friendly solution. Next steps are to deep dive into all the related directives and brainstorm ideas before the next meeting.

Federal
We gave a general introduction to the geothermal opportunity in Canada— direct-use for industrial process heating as well as the opportunity for a prospective Conservative government to “get right” what was perhaps overlooked by the Liberals, who had a (well-intentioned) yet overly ambitious focus on electrification which programs were not well suited to early geothermal industry development.

CanGEA asserts our position as a non-partisan organization and we express gratitude for the growing bipartisan support of our industry; that being said, as an advocacy association, we will continue to unapologetically seek political opportunities to advance the interests of the geothermal industry irrespective of party lines.

Alberta
​The first alert came in the wake of a “deep freeze,” which took most of the blame for increased electricity demand. The alert on April 5th does not have the same luxury of being able to blame intermittents or excess demand due to cold weather. The problem has nothing to do with lack of (potential) supply nor increased demand. It is becoming increasingly apparent that providers may be shutting down generation to inflate and manipulate the price. Perhaps an overhaul of Alberta’s energy market is past due.

The government touted it’s commitment to “protecting Alberta’s grid and ensuring our province continues to generate reliable baseload power both now and in the future.” It is becoming increasingly apparent that market measures are needed to lay the groundwork for the public and private sectors to work together to unleash geothermal megawatts onto Alberta’s grid.

Central to the tour, including that of various Calpine geothermal facilities at the Geysers, were policy and advocacy strategizing sessions, as well as team building activities with US counterparts. Furthermore, rubbing shoulders with private sector leaders of the California geothermal industry to raise awareness of the next frontier for geothermal energy and policy development — Canada.

Federal
The letter called for the fruition of the framework for a Canadian taxonomy to “serve as sustainable investment guidelines, providing investors, bankers and others with a valuable tool to target capital more confidently to projects that address the climate emergency.” The framework has been in development since 2019 by Canada’s finance experts and culminating in 2023 with a series of recommendations endorsed by over 25 of Canada’s largest financial entities.

Canada indeed announced a Sustainable Finance Taxonomy in their budget released later in the month — more details below.

BC Hydro has issued a request for proposals (RFP) to acquire approximately 3,000 gigawatt hours per year (GWh/y) of electricity. This is BC Hydro’s first competitive call for power in 15 years and will add 5% to its current supply. The deadline for RFP submissions is September 16, 2024. More details available here.

CanGEA respectfully calls on the BC government to take the necessary steps to ensure all of BC’s renewable natural resources are utilized to meet rising demand for clean electricity. Geothermal permitting needs to be streamlined in BC; additionally, geothermal energy should receive a carve out in CleanBC Funding.

The project includes a geothermal EGS laboratory and a field experimental facility at Waterloo, and has academics from across Canada involved in the early stages. Most of the funds are sourced from the Federal Government, and a portion from the Province of Ontario. Academics from Waterloo have reached out to CanGEA to discuss opportunities to work with industry and government moving forward. More to come on this as it develops.

Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is in the process of developing geothermal legislation and has sought industry feedback. Topics discussed include:

• Resource rights exclusivity;
• The necessity for a transparent tenure process;
• Industrial applications of geothermal heat direct-use;
• Market conditions needed for geothermal power.

More details to come out of Saskatchewan as they develop.

Federal
​Our proposed study would include the preliminary technical design and feasibility work required to evaluate fuel-switching operations within the Hot Opportunity Targets (HOT) Portfolio to geothermal process heat. We are pleased that our application has moved into the next stages of screening. 

Alberta
Alberta has proclaimed legislation, effective March 6, 2024, to modernize the electricity grid,  reduce demand, adapt new technologies, and work toward a carbon-neutral grid by 2050. Specific provisions include allowing more energy storage and more on-site power generation with the option to sell excess power to the grid. Gov’t press release here. Full legislation here.

Additionally, Alberta is temporarily updating electricity market rules, particularly  regarding economic withholding. In the current system, generators sometimes hike up their prices collectively, to take advantage of the energy-only market which results in higher prices for consumers. Temporary measures to come forth include limiting the offer price of natural gas generating units owned by large generators, if net revenues cross a predefined threshold. The second will address physical withholding, by requiring natural gas generating assets to be made available, as directed by the AESO, in certain circumstances such as extreme weather and other times of peak demand.

We speculate that these provisions are temporary to test their effects on the market in a sort of “trial run.” CanGEA will be advocating for permanent reforms to ensure geothermal power can receive the premium price that baseload renewable energy deserves and needs to compete in Alberta’s electricity market and enhance Alberta’s grid and goals to be more robust and sustainable. Full gov’t press release here.