Geothermal in Alberta a slow percolating interest

Geothermal Utilities is founded by Joe Lewoniuk in Edmonton, Alberta, who says, "Geothermal is an energy heating solution that's basically free forever once the incremental costs are met." It is a cost-efficient heating and cooling system, "even in a place like Alberta where natural gas is king." Geothermal supplies heat, air conditioning, and hot water, and Lewoniuk  notes that extra costs are generally found in the size of the heat-gathering loop in the ground. "The geothermal industry has more welcoming markets such as in Manitoba where they drill geothermal holes for $3.50 per foot. It's $6.50 a foot in Alberta. You drill 250 feet and the cost is going to be near $2,000."

Despite expense, says Lewoniuk , the energy yield is high and cost-efficient. "It's a far better household investment than say a hot-tub or fancy triple pane glass windows," and he believes Albertans a lagging behind the rest of Canada. Alberta's geothermal reticence is based on lack of knowledge, says Lewoniuk , "The supply chain in building management starts with contractors and are entrenched in gas works in Alberta. It may begin to change now that Natural Resources Canada put earth and geothermal energy on the official list of renewable energy sources in Canada."

 Jeremy Jacob operates Exchangenergy from Pender Street offices in Vancouver and Duncan, B.C., on Vancouver Island. Jacob says, "GeoExchange systems moves the Earth’s energy into a residential or commercial space using ground or water heat exchangers and heat pump technology.  By moving heat instead of producing it through of combustion or electrical heat, we can acheive heating efficiencies of over 500%. GeoExchange systems work with both forced air and radiant floors. Many of our clients prefer radiant floors for their comfortable heat effect. Adding a Heat Recovery Ventilator gives greatly improved indoor air quality.

 Jacob says, "The industry allows systems that use a ground heat exchanger sized for 70% of the building load, but we design systems to run on geothermal 100% of the time without using supplementary heat.  We've found that 100% ground loops suffer none of the 'loop degradation' seen on some partial systems." Time has proven geothermal heat exchange and heat pumps require low maintenance and have the lowest life cycle costs of any other home heating methods.

The atmosphere of living conditions is vastly improved by the use of this technology, "We are control system experts and use careful integration of system elements with an intelligent control system strategy to optimize performance of a GeoExchange heat pump. Solar panels, swimming pools, domestic hot water, air conditioning - depending on the requirements, we can design the best strategy to balance these loads to get the most efficient system."
 

The folks at Integrity Mechanical, in Vancouver, B.C., liken geothermal to a juggling act of amazing proportions, "It's like bringing ten trades together in one smooth and efficient operation," says Scott Miller, the principle, "including several forms of hydronics and circuitry, pumps and heat exchangers." The array is engineered and then installed by excavators or drillers, plumbers and pipe-fitters, heat pump installers, and the process is monitored by regulators. Scott works with solar thermal panels to drench the fluid in solar heat to increase ground heat in the geothermal array.
 

"These solar panels resemble photovoltaic panels but are different because they circulate fluids through panels and can be directed by a series of valves from a mechanical room to feed heat to the geothermal pipes," says Rob Pope, sales manager at Integrity Mechanical. No electrical generation is involved in the thermal solar installation and hot water heat is used in a variety of ways." Geothermal is typically installed on new construction and solar panels are usually 4 feet by 8 feet. "We can supply green energy with huge cost efficiencies to institutions like schools and administrative centres and health clinics and community facilities." 

Polar Refrigeration in Prince George, B.C., installed the NEXT Energy systems with a horizontal array at the McLeod Lake Indian Band, which is a Tse'Khene community that lies up Highway 97N on the way from Prince George to Mackenzie. "They installed it into the administration building a couple of years ago at the main community of the McLeod Lake Band, 150 kilometres north of Prince George," says Dez, of Polar Refrigeration. McLeod Lake Band is an industrious group of over 450 members. The community is presently establishing new Indian Reserve properties in Mackenzie and Bear Lake. As these reserves are developed and housing constructed it is expected more than the present 150 band members will move back to Indian Reserve lands. Innovations like geothermal may be in the offing for new developments.

Parkland Geothermal, Derwin Joelson, President, is a CGC certified NextEnergy dealer in northern and central Saskatchewan. Joelson believes in geothermal is the only way to go in Saskatchewan. The limited availability of natural gas in rural areas combined with costs of propane and oil (or the labour intensive task of providing enough wood as a source of heat in winter months) should only confirm his beliefs.

"Most clients are those who do not have access to natural gas or those who are looking for a more cost efficient heating system in the long run," says Joelson. Compared to conventional heating and cooling systems, geothermal systems have a higher initial cost but lower operating and maintenance costs. "When considering a heating system, we should compare not only initial costs but we must include on-going costs such as fuel, maintenance, and replacement."
 

Geothermal system should be viewed as a long term investment that can mean substantial savings within several years of installation, Joelson says, "The number of incentives and grants available along with the many advantages of a geothermal system and many," including; low maintenance, free air conditioning, comfortable interior environment with cleaner air, hot water, humidity control, and green energy. "This should only convince everyone that geothermal is the answer."
 

Sonic Drilling is a company built on highly functional innovations in drilling that so happen to work optimally on geothermal drilling jobs. With a host of drill and drill head patents Sonic Drilling also manufacturers a line of drills for export to countries all around the world. The company operates in the high-end of the industrial economy by drilling for cost-efficient energy solutions and manufacturers of sonic drills and drill heads.

Ray Roussy patented a super-performing sonic drill that has won awards in geothermal efficiency from the Canadian Geo-Exchange Coalition. Roussy's company Sonic Drilling succeeded in commercializing a sonic drill rig that bores 3-5 times faster (depending on soil conditions), "without using any drilling mud and is able to provide continuous core samples to depths of more than 300 ft. (100 meters)." As a result of these amazing attributes, sonic drilling can be employed in many applications including geo-technical and geothermal projects, environmental investigations, and mineral exploration, with a marked specialty in drilling and sampling for aggregate materials like gravel and for sampling environmental remediation conditions around the province.

 Bill Fitzgerald is the General Manager of Sonic Drilling, and Fitzgerald says, "We sell the drills around the world and employ our own fleet of drill rigs in Canada on a contract basis across the country. We do a lot of environmental drilling for remediation projects and we explore for minerals, and we have a specialization in geothermal holes. We do all kinds of drilling but generally we do the exploratory, environmental, and geothermal holes."

Fitzgerald says, "Our work in drilling in Canada is 90 percent geothermal and 10 percent environmental. It used to be opposite. And we do a lot of work providing core samples for mineral exploration," and they leave a very clean site when the job is done. He explains geothermal drilling comes in two sizes, 5 inch or 6 inch diameter. "These holes provides the width to put in the piping, one inch or one and a quarter inch polyethylene straight down 150 to 200 feet. The loop is made at the bottom and grouting fills the hole," a heat conducive mixture that increases the heat sensitivity in the loop.

Enduring Mikisew Companies

Mikisew Cree First Nation (MCFN) inhabits the western shores of Lake Athabasca in Fort Chipewyan, Alberta, a community in the northeast of the province that was established in 1788. The place remains oddly remote, tiny, but is developing nicely and the membership is torn between staying isolated or joining the outside world with a road to Fort McMurray.

Fort 'Chip' was once a North West Company and Rupert's Land trading post, and is today the gateway to Wood Buffalo National Park and other magnificent tourism opportunities. Even without the benefit of a road, MCFN moved successfully into both the travel and energy sectors of Alberta. Under the management of Aqeel Ahmad, MCFN created Mikisew Energy Services Group (MESG) and developed companies that staff more than 400 people, recruiting from within and outside the First Nation.

Aqeel said, "MCFN governance runs a portfolio-based system that oversees separate sectors of the economy," from the Mikisew community perspective. A series of corporate entities came into being, like 2000 Plus Ltd., Mikisew Maintenance Ltd. (MML), and MSD to make up MESG. 

 MML and 2000 Plus Ltd. have been involved in the oil and gas industry for the past nine years in Fort McMurray creating hundreds of jobs in the oil and gas industry. The MESG area of operation has been in the oil sands, and these companies perform jobs with millions of hours of work with all classes and levels of machine and technology. The MESG companies have operations at Syncrude, Albian, Trans Alta, and Suncor.

MCFN business plans took MESG companies into rich core areas where members could develop extensive knowledge and experience in energy plants of all types and complexities. They deliver manpower to administration as well. Aqeel said, "MESG has employed well over 600 employees. Last year MESG put in approximately 806,130 man hours in those project areas." MESG companies will expand, and more may appear. "We are actively searching for new ways outside Fort McMurray, and within Edmonton, to provide employment and training opportunities for Mikisew and other First Nation or Aboriginal people."

He said, "These companies have building capacity even with current obligations in very interesting areas of the oil and gas economy," and they are on the lookout for new opportunities. Aaron Kaskamin is a site manager for MM Limited Partnership. "We are a union company. In order to get employment, employees have to be members of local unions," said Aaron. "We work with local labour and trades unions to get Mikisew members into the local union whenever it is possible."

Kaskamin is joined by Mikisew managers found in operations across the board. April-Eve Wiberg works for Air Mikisew, and Edmonton-based Mikisew Slings and Safety Ltd., two more companies owned by MESG. April-Eve said, "What happens now is that other long-awaited opportunities ensue, and we have to learn how to take advantage of them." She said that Air Mikisew started about 10 years ago when MCFN bought Contact Air.

 

"The goal was to ensure never again would the community of Fort Chipewyan be at the mercy of a southern-based, for-profit airline. Too much was at risk." Also, owning an airline raised the possibility of a money-making venture for MCFN. "We have 11 airplanes, and 21 pilots operating within a fiercely competitive industry," said April-Eve.

"Our entire operation is strategically targeted at running an airline." Air Mikisew staff function with specific and high level training and accreditation in Fort McMurray. "We can always improve, and this is our goal, though overall I think our Fort Chip client base and MCFN leadership are pleased with the company's performance.

"We're flying full most of the time, our freight program is stretched to keep up, therefore I'd suggest these are signs of things going fairly well. We're proud of being named Fort McMurray's Business of the Year in 2005, a fairly exciting accomplishment in light of the incredible amount of business operating and gravitating around Fort McMurray."

Air Mikisew flies scheduled flights out of Edmonton City Centre Airport to both Fort McMurray and Fort Chipewyan. April-Eve added that even though the season is 'off' for now, Northern Mikisew Sport Fishing owns Alberta's top-rated group of fly-in fishing lodges.