Canadian Geothermal: What's the Hold Up?

Canada is one of the only developed countries on the Pacific Ring of Fire not taking major commercial advantage of geothermal energy - a clean, energy source that runs 24/7! This begs the question: What's holding up geothermal energy in Canada? 

CanGEA's policy advisor, Justin Crewson, answers just that in a recent article, Lots of Potential, Still No Geothermal, published in Power Engineering. Justin outlines four reasons geothermal has failed to take off in Canada, as it successfully has in continental neighbours the United States and Mexico.

1. Lack of a geothermal permitting scheme. Geothermal developers have great difficulty securing investors without legal ownership over their resource. At present the only jurisdiction in Canada that distributes geothermal leases.
   
2. Ineffective existing permitting. British Columbia's Geothermal Resources Act (GRA) is criticized as further complicating the permitting and development process.
3. High upfront costs. Drilling alone can account for up to 30 percent of a projects budget. Government programs for renewable energy projects with high start-up costs are geared towards intermittent renewables such as wind and solar.
4. Baseload value is unrecognized. Governments in Canada have failed to recognize the geothermal's value as a baseload (produces power 24/7) renewable energy source.

Click here to read the full article.