Cost efficiencies of geothermal meeting widespread approval

Look at housing and infrastructure and you should be looking at geothermal, says Inez Miller of Manitoba Geothermal Energy Alliance (MGEA). “It doesn’t matter where you look in the province, the business arrangements work.” Miller says, “Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs is expressing interest in geothermal from an overall planning perspective. They tell us it has a strong appeal based on funding, access to resources, and other issues that could make projects successful.”

MGEA wants to be positioned to address areas of concern expressed by AMC in workshops. She notes that Darcy Wood, AMC housing and infrastructure manager, made a presentation to MGEA this spring that contained a lot of statistical analysis about housing needs assessments. “It was an excellent presentation. Geothermal presents phenomenal opportunities and we learned about the issues around potable water that could be tied to geothermal systems.”

Brian Soulier works at AMC on geothermal issues, “What we did last March was host a workshop in a technology working group that focused on the economic development with people in finance, human resources, environment, and infrastructure or housing planning. Our workshops brought together First Nations to communicate about advancements in technology.”

One topic of discussion was geothermal, and Miller spoke about MGEA as did Ed Lohrenz, Vice President of MGEA, Ron Robins, MGEA president, “and Cross Lakes First Nation presented on their success story with a 38-unit housing installation in a district loop. Franklin Ross came with their contractor to discuss installation and the obstacles that were overcome.”

Soulier said, “Knowledge exchange with First Nations communities helps those who are interested and assists others who perceive it cautiously, stating that geothermal is too complicated or too costly. The expense depends on the priority of the community, those seeking good infrastructure solutions with long run cost efficiencies will find the economic capacity. We are advocating geothermal for the communities in Manitoba.”

Winnipeg Geothermal’s Ron Robins is serving president of MGEA. Board members are competitors and Robins is owner of a geothermal  installer company doing design and installation, conducting geological drilling assessments for heat exchange arrays for either commercial buildings or apartment blocks.

Friesen Drillers is owned by John Friesen, operating a third generation family business drilling in Manitoba since the late 1800s. Frieson is a board member MGEU, “We work all over Canada,” from an operational centre in Steinbach, Manitoba. “Drilling in the Canadian Shield is more expensive, even so, you get thermal conductivity in the shield that is higher than average, so it’s a positive geothermal situation that is more expensive to access with the same payback on BTUs, although the cost to drill goes up.”

Geothermal drilling occurs in rock, clay, limestone, any conditions. One of the important geothermal options is called an open loop, which extracts heat from a dedicated water well and returns the water to another well. “If you are in rural Manitoba and need a water well, you can use that same well to extract geothermal energy and drill an extra well to act as a return well. We do a fair bit of that. By nature our first love was drilling for water.”

Friesen says, “Geothermal provides huge cost efficiencies over the long term. In the urban environment, commercial geothermal installations provide huge energy savings in apartment blocks. Commercial arrays work for major manufacturing companies like Bristol Aerospace, which uses high heat processes in manufacturing and they take ground water out for cooling. Acquiring water rights for allows for licensing groundwater systems, a scenario for which we engineer and design systems, be they closed or open loop systems.”

Drills come from various drill manufacturers, and Friesen has a large number of different drills for the variety of jobs the company engages. “My company is now in it since 1892. I’ve been in geothermal since 1972 on the residential side and the commercial side since 1976. In the past five years residential geothermal has exploded into a major part of the business, and it keeps growing as more customers are able to justify the $18,000 to $25,000 upfront costs.”

Sealing the drilled loops is done meticulously with thermal-enhanced grout, which contain very low conductivity values, “We do bore holes up to 600 ft. in Winnipeg and around Manitoba, and the concern is always to preserve ecological integrity of aquifers, separate water tables, and to avoid contamination of fresh water by salt water aquifers.”

He notes, “We have to protect these water tables. Geothermal drillers are going through ground water and grouting creates the security, which takes time and money.” The company does extensive training of drillers, pump installers, and all facets of operations, with a staff of 65, including a hydrologist engineer, “a rare breed. There is lots of competition in the industry. We do a lot of training and skills development in drilling and various technologies.”

Lee Robins of CleanEnergy says, “We provide complete geo-exchange installation on large commercial projects.   The company distributes GeoStar Heat Pumps, which  are available with ten year parts and  labour allowance factory warranties, and a life expectancy of 25 to 30 years,

“Geothermal takes heat out of the ground in winter and releases it into the (building)., During summer it takes the heat from the building and releases to the ground. The dual purpose makes it more efficient - then there’s the type of loop weather it be it an open system, drilled, buried loops, or lake or ocean loops. We have in-house engineers that can provide complete design, energy analysis and life cycle analysis.  They work extensively in commercial projects, estimating proper heat and cooling loads estimating proper heat and cooling loads that contribute to an efficient environmentally friendly system.

Robins says, “The heat gathering loops are designed to serve the equipment, and loops are designed according to geography, as well as financial feasibility. Around the country recreation facilities are using geothermal  adaptations to rinks and halls or swimming pools to exchange heat, moving heat energy from one place for use in another. District loops are very good options wider community-use. I’ve been in geothermal since 1988 and I used to be surprised how long it was taking to get it started. Now the cost of everything related to energy is growing, and the green initiatives are part of the new equations.. Big innovations in efficiencies and quality of materials have made the geothermal investment better than ever.”

Crystal Thibeault is an executive on the board of MGEA and owns International Pipe Manufacture in Selkirk, Manitoba, which markets specialized pipe across Canada to both coasts, from Truro to Bella Coola, and places between like Berens River, Manitoba. Water pipe, electrical pipe, and geothermal pipe. “We put your pipe in the ground and manufacture up six inch pipe, and geothermal uses a technically proficient plastic pipe called high density polyethylene (HDPE)

Geothermal dialogue regards First Nations projects in Canada

NextEnergy's Dave Weber describes geothermal energy this way, "It's not complicated, in fact it's really quite simple. A heat exchanger works the same as a refrigerator, and what it's doing is taking heat from the ground and with a heat pump it's sending heat through the house. The heat pump goes in the basement to replace the gas or oil furnace and the ground heat is extracted by pipes laid in the ground, with horizontal arrays generally excavated to about 6 feet in depth, or from holes drilled a couple hundred feet deep."
     

Weber says, "When the ground extraction is from an array of drilled holes the depth is generally about 200 feet. Making a vertical array shrinks the footprint of the ground loop array, but it's more expensive to go vertical because the drilling cost is higher than the cost of excavation." Weber maintains that the expense may be higher but the process remains feasible. "With specialization in the drilling equipment and process the cost is coming down a bit. Unlike a water well hole you only drill about 5 inches wide. The pipe goes down and there are two u-shaped bends that return the ground-heated water to the heat exchanger."
     

He adds, "In the horizontal array you go below the frost-line, sometimes as deep as eight feet, depending on the climate. Either system is returning ground heat to a NextEnergy geothermal heat pump." The heat exchange units carry a 10 year warranty on the machinery, one of the most comprehensive in the industry. NextEnergy is a strong advocate of complying with industry standards making sure all the installations are done by the right people. "NextEnergy personally hand picks our certified contractors and put them through a rigorous selection process before we sign them on. They are all trained and certified by our in-house experts."
     

Weber says, "These are all independent contractors working in a period of unbelievable growth of this technology." The company's network of installers is setting the bar. He notes that current federal and provincial incentives permit up to $9,000 to be invested in green energy solutions by householders in some provinces, although different circumstances probably apply to Indian Reserves, where the Canada Economic Action Plan is currently underway.
    

 "Geothermal is basically solar energy because the sun heats the earth and pipes are extracting the heat," says Weber. "The systems use 3/4 inch plastic pipe looped in an array that runs across an excavated area to create the energy source. Calculations are based on the size and heat loss of the house, ground conditions and climate. The flow of the loop is controlled by a flow-centre monitoring system mounted on the wall." The regulated flow applies to individual circuits and the flow conducts through the acreage or you can do a pond loop to extract heat from the water. Ground loops can also be pre-arranged in subdivisions by the developer. There are geothermal subdivisions like Sun Rivers in Kamloops, BC.
     

Ground Source Drilling Ltd. is expert in geothermal drilling  for residential and commercial purposes. "We are based in Kelowna, B.C., and serve many locations throughout both B.C. and Alberta," says Lori Faasse, general manager. They are geothermal drillers only, "Specializing in this one field allows us to be extremely competitive in our pricing. Our drillers are certified through the BC Ministry of Environment and all of our drill rigs are successful at working in many different mud and air rotary conditions. We have good working relationships with many regional heat pump installers. We can work directly with you or through your installer and if you do not have a geothermal system installer we can assist you in finding one. We want to help you meet your geothermal goals."
     

The company is a family-owned and operated business with many years of experience in the drilling business. "Drilling holes for geothermal is different depending on the area. You will have to drill to 300 feet maximum in some areas, but on average the depth of hole is about 200 feet," says Faase. "The number of holes to be drilled depends on the ground type involved and the size of the house to be heated."  Ground Source Drilling does the drilling for Sun Rivers Construction in the award winning Kamloops subdivision that leads with innovation in 'greening' their community, in part by building geothermal heating and air-conditioning systems into their house construction since 1999.
    

 "Our drilling for them is on-going and it continues to be a show-piece housing development in geothermal construction. The drilling portion of a geothermal/geo-exchange installation costs anywhere between $8,000 and $15,000 for a house, depending on the size of the house and the number and depth of holes in the array of drilled ground loops." Faase says there are a few areas in the province where you can't do a geothermal installation because the cost of drilling becomes prohibitive, but they work in B.C. and Alberta installing these ground loops and, "usually the first test holes will prove it."
     

Progressive Geothermal Ltd. is a geothermal installation company that operates out of Kitimat, B.C., "I've been installing geothermal and geo-exchange systems in the North West Coast for the past three years," says Paul Silvestre, the principle of the company that installs Nordic Canadian heat exchange systems designed and built in Petitcodiac, New Brunswick. "I trained on the installation of geothermal systems in Calgary and did residential and designer installation courses. It was a two-week course and I went into it as a journeyman heavy-duty mechanic."
    

 He liked the concept from deciding on the heating method to be installed on his own property. "Retrofits are definitely do-able. I would typically go to an engineering firm and design the system based on the heat-loss calculation of the building," says Silvestre. "I would do a site visit and check the age of the building, the walls and windows, the type of insulation, and we would determine the number of BTU's required to heat the building."
     

Silvestre says the northern reaches of B.C. where he lives and works contains many communities that are diesel dependent for their heat, and it might well be electric heat. "They need electrical energy to heat the water in their houses. Cost efficiencies would be found in extracting heat from the ground for houses instead of burning diesel to create electricity to heat houses."; while heat exchangers require electricity the electrical demand on the diesel generator would drop by a significant amount.
     

"I've done vertical systems where the pipes are laid into drilled holes, and I've done horizontal arrays in the Kitimat region." Silvestre says it takes about a day and a half to install a slinky coil horizontal loop of about 100 feet by 50 feet with a depth of about 6 to 8 feet, depending on the soil. "The loops of slinky coil use a lot less ground area and reduced excavation brings down costs." The loops contain a solution or water to extract the earth's heat which is circulated through the Nordic heat exchanger, and "You're not losing effectiveness with a properly coiled horizontal ground loop. The more expensive way comes when drilling an open loop at $40 per foot down two wells to the required depth." The depth varies depending on the availability of water whereupon one well extracts the water for the heat exchanger while the other well returns source  ground water to the aquifer.
    

 Silvestre refers next to the closed loop method of extracting heat from the earth, "It's called the closed loop of multiple wells joined at the 'header' that can be located in the basement of the building and this header has multiple valves to control circulation from the wells." The heat exchanger will generate four tonnes of 'refrigeration' power which is enough to heat or cool a 2,000 sq ft house. A Nordic unit of the required  size costs between $4,500 and $5,000. "The most expensive aspect of a geothermal installation is the excavation or drilling for heat extraction."
     

Regarding the expense of design and installation of geothermal systems, it is the rising cost of hydro and natural gas (and the cost to install natural gas lines) or burn diesel or propane that should be factored into the investment. "There is also the reduction of green house gases and the quiet way of heating the system affords." At his location on the Pacific coast there are communities that would be able to install ocean loops as the way to extract the constant heat of the ocean water. "For some communities there may be added cost because of government regulation and worries about losing the loops to an active fishery. Hartley Bay is a community right beside the ocean and they installed a horizontal ground loop system," partly because it was safer in consideration for their active fishery in immediate vicinity of their village on Hecate Strait.
     

Greenray Geothermal has been installing geothermal energy systems for the past four years  along the Sunshine Coast of B.C., doing installations from Gibsons to Pender Harbour. Joe Fleischer a Next Energy dealer who became a certified installer with Canadian GeoExchange Coalition certification. Fleischer says Canada has variety in the opportunities to employ geothermal and geo-exchange technology to heat homes and save on energy consumption and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, "Ocean loops are popular forms of extracting geothermal energy on the west coast," a system of pipes that extracts the constant heat in the ocean to be used for house and hot water heating or air-conditioning in the summer.
     

He notes this form of heat extraction can also be achieved from lakes or ponds, "Ocean loops and geo-exchange arrays in lakes and ponds are very compact, 10 feet by 25 feet of coiled pipe will supply 4,000 tonnes of extractable heat energy." (1,000 tonnes of geothermal energy is the equivalent of 24,000 BTUs ant that is enough 'heat exchanged energy' to make a tonne of ice in 24 hours.)
    

The application of this energy source is becoming more common every day, "The new BC Ferry terminal at Departure Bay is heated and cooled by geothermal extracted by ocean loop." Ocean loops are unobtrusive and highly efficient both in extracting energy for minimal cost but also for the low cost of installation. An array of pipes can be arranged under a dock or pier and the energy extraction process can proceed with either water or methanol or ethanol propoline glycol flowing inside the geo-exchange array of loops. "The ocean has so much thermal mass that it efficiently pays for itself." Fleischer says ocean loops are efficient and affordable.
     

Horizontal ground loop arrays are put in the ground usually less than 8 feet deep beneath an excavation, "Sechelt First Nation put an underground geothermal array, known as a ground loop, to feed heat energy into five houses." Elsehwhere he says the method in the City of Vancouver is usually to drill from 150 feet to 300 feet to extract heat energy from the earth. "It costs about $15 a foot to drill the holes where it is a feasible ground heat source and one hole will supply 1,000 tonne of geothermal energy so it takes four holes to heat and cool a 2,000 square foot house and supply hot water." Sound proofing around the heat exchange unit makes for a quiet that surpasses air blown furnace heat.
     

Fleischer recently did a geo-exchange installation in Powell River on the Sunshine Coast, and says, "I'd like to get involved with training some people to do geothermal because the demand for installations is growing." There is presently a shortage of installers." Geothermal companies need people qualified to install it, "and it's a physical job," with excavations usually done by hired contractors, then, once the pipes are laid, there are pressure tests to conduct on pipes that are arrayed in tight concentric loops.

     

Pipes are warrantied for 50 years. They call geothermal taking heat from the lap of mother nature, "It's a pure form of heat unlike combustion furnaces that exceed 180 degrees of burning temperatures," literally frying the dust that is blown into the house, and geothermal extraction can come from creative thinking and new sources, "There is a trend in the US toward tapping municipal water systems for their geothermic mass."
    

Jim Croken has been installing geothermal and geoexhange systems in the Okanagan region of B.C. and beyond for the past ten years, and his son Nick has taken an educational pathway into mechanical engineering that will take the family business much farther than Jim might have imagined. Nick is a believer in the geothermal business, knowledgeable enough to write a scholarship-winning treatise about a unique geo-exchange project that took a different tack. Geothermal requires a heat source, water or ground, and these sources equal amazing cost efficiencies in the production of heat energy. Nick studied a geo-exchange project that took heat from the milk extracted from cows and returned it into barn heat, producing ideal conditions for milking in all seasons.
     

"I built my house ten years ago when I was an electrical contractor," says Jim,  "The gas company informed me that it would cost $10,000 to get a gas-line to my house." Jim started doing the research and discovered a business opportunity that fit nicely within his skills and business sense. Soon he was building an enterprise around what seemed like a simple solution for his own purposes. Since then he's done over 200 installations from the Okanagan to Fort St. John, including everything from residential to agricultural (dairy barns, chicken coops) and multi-family dwellings, like 30 unit condominiums. "We target our business opportunities that are off the natural gas grid and those are a lot of places in B.C., including most of the territory east of Revelstoke. 

Geothermal utility delivering new housing energy community-wide in B.C.

Geotility is a geothermal utility service that is the brain-child of Jim Leask of Kelowna, B.C., who envisioned natural gas and other non-renewable energy sources becoming less-affordable as time goes by. The energy options to burning fossil fuel were practically non-existent in North America when he started a mechanical company in the Okanagan Valley of B.C. in the early 1990s.

Rick Nelson works for Geotility in their Kelowna office, “Jim was a visionary in setting up a geothermal utility company in B.C.,” says Rick. “Running a geothermal utility is not that difficult in this province but different provinces have different rules.” In the province of B.C., meanwhile, Geotility has  found a lot of success by working with First Nations. “They are leaders in the green energy debate in this province.”

 

Geotility runs the Sun Rivers geothermal utility in Kamloops, a housing development that resides on land belonging to Kamloops Indian Band, and recently Geotility broke ground on a centralized geothermal utility service for a  brand new  housing development for the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation, in Tofino, B.C., on Vancouver Island. “It's all geothermal in Tofino at the new the Esowista housing development of the Tla-o-qui-aht community.”

 

Rick says of the company he works for, “We're passionate about delivering geothermal services. What started as a mechanical company under Jim Leask and Sons has become a complete geothermal company,” he says, including all the services involved, from drilling to mechanical installations to heat distribution, billing and maintenance.

 

Rick says, “Basically Jim Leask saw the day 20 years ago when natural gas distribution would become more and more expensive and he began looking at the options.” As a mechanical engineer Jim Leask saw geothermal as the next step in energy services and geothermal was a perfect fit for mechanical company, so, “Seven years ago Geotility was launched to pave the way for the geothermal industry to operate at the same level as other utility services.”

 

Today Geotility even owns the drills (manufactured by Multi-Power Products in Kelowna). Geotility worked with Tom Ulm, Sr., of Multi-Power Products to design a drill to fit inside an underground parkade, and as a result, Geotility is able to retro-fit buildings in the core of a city's downtown with geothermal heating systems.  Drilling is underway directly beneath existing buildings like the Georgia Hotel in Vancouver, and the Hudson's Bay Building in downtown Victoria, “We have two modified drills with short masts that can operate in all ground conditions.”

 

Geotility designs the utility systems that run heat through whole communities. “We drill 700,000 feet per year and fill the holes with geothermal pipe.” For example since the ground was laid out for new housing on Esowista property, in Tofino, drilling is commencing to supply heat to the entire community of 160 new houses plus other facilities, including a new Long House and community facilities.

 

Jordan Parrot is one of the engineers at Geotility, and Jordan is in charge of the Esowista drilling program in Tofino starting this January. “It's one large geothermal field with centralized distribution of the hot water,” says Jordan. “We are doing the field engineering and mechanical design on this project. We are producing hot water for the geothermal array from hundreds of ground-loop drill holes.”

 

Jordan says the Esowista field is a large one, “It's a substantial size field, hundreds of holes. The drilling program will take three or four months to complete, depending on  the weather.” The company is hiring some of their required labour from the Tla-o-qui-aht community.

 

Moses Martin is housing manager for Esowista Housing, the department belonging to the Tla-o-qui-aht community based in Tofino. “Construction is underway,” says Moses, “the roads are roughed in and a new bridge was built to join this project to the existing Esowista community.” Sixty-eight is the number of new houses slated for immediate construction and another 100 houses will be built within the next five years.

 

Funding for the new housing development ($17 million )was obtained under the Canada Economic Action Plan and Moses says $3 million of that was earmarked for geothermal heating. “With the overall size of the project we anticipate the return of Tla-o-qui-aht families to Tofino from places like Port Alberni, Nanaimo, Victoria, and Seattle, Washington.”

 

Moses adds, “It's a well-rounded housing plan that includes the geothermal heating for the new Long House and an eventual school for the new community.” The bridge connects this subdivision, called Ty'Tan'Us, to the existing Esowista community and the nhe new community will have three access points, says Moses.

 

Tla-o-qui-aht members will be active in the building of all phases. “We are ramping up the workforce as we speak. We will have a team of labourers working throughout the phase, and phase one alone will supply jobs and paycheques for at least two years.” Some training and apprenticeship will ensue.

 

The skilled labour will be learning new aspects of construction, says Moses, “We are looking for better quality housing construction being put into these homes. We want these homes to last at least 50 years. We are looking hard at the quality of the houses and we're going for the LEED Gold Standard of green and sustainable housing construction.”

Mt. Currie Band goes geothermal on new community facilities

ECCO Heating Products Ltd. supplied a complete geothermal system to provide heating and cooling for a 30,000-plus sq. ft. community centre at Mt. Currie First Nation, infrastructure long awaited by the patient people of Lil'Wat Nation who live 20 minutes from Whistler, B.C.. The Resort Municipality of Whistler will be the centre of skiing in the 2010 Olympics and nearby Mt. Currie has been gaining new economic ground, and turning to green energy solutions and geothermal savings, in the meantime. 
     

Rob Kersbergen of Whistler Geothermal is the mechanical contractor who was awarded the contract to complete the work for the much-needed Lil'Wat facility. The preceding community facilities were dilapidated and unavailable. ECCO Heating Products provided expertise and guidance after conducting a site survey with Whistler Geothermal for a detailed energy analysis of the proposed community centre. Kersbergen says, "We laid in 120,000 feet of pipe (over 22 miles) a year ago in a closed loop system, done in a horizontal array," which is laid in by excavation to about 7 feet of depth.
     

"It is a compact slinky coil design consisting of 120 circuits with 800 feet of pipe in each circuit, there are 12 circuits per header, and the headers are connected to a commercial VFD
     

(Variable Frequency Drive) flow station, which is located in the building's mechanical room. The VFD flow Station controls the volume and pressure required to meet the flow requirements through the ground heat exchanger and geothermal heat pumps from the earth to the building or from the building to the earth, depending on the building's demand," based on outdoor temperatures and building occupant requirements.
     
The new community centre will contain an HVAC system (heating, ventilating, and air conditioning) with Heat Recovery Ventilators (HRV's). The HVAC system incorporates a series of Fan/Coil modules to utilize hot or chilled water supplied by the geothermal system to supply heating and cooling throughout the building. The system was designed so that it could provide heating and cooling simultanously based on the building's exposures and occupancy levels.
     

Kersbergen explains how the HVAC system involves multiple heat transfer modules (Heat Recovery Core) to extract heat from stale air being exhausted to the outdoors and tranfers that heat to the incoming fresh air stream into the building. "The Aluminum Core design prevents any cross contamination of exhaust and fresh air streams, only the heat is transfered, not the air." Mechanical engineers design the buildings with these energy efficiencies. They work with building loads (including numbers of people, doors, windows, and activities) and air flow calculations heat loss calculations.
    

 "I did the field work on the geothermal system, and with the technical expertise of Paul Vaillancourt of ECCO Heating Products, was able to modify the original mechanical design without compromising the performance or quality of the system." Paul Vaillancourt of Ecco Heating Products Ltd. is one of Canada's leading experts in the geothermal industry, says Kersbergen, "and he added tremendous value to this project."
     

It is estimated design changes "will have saved Mt. Currie's administration a few hundred thousand dollars, literally," says Kersbergen. "They were on a tight budget and had requirements for air quality in the two-level building." It's a steel clad, steel frame building that has 21,000 square feet on the main floor and another 13,000 estimated square feet on the second level.
    

 Kersbergen has been in the area for 21 years, "from the first stop sign to the first elevator." He says, "Lil"Wat Nation is progressive and doing a lot of development and the community centre in Mt. Currie will be filling with occupants within a few weeks. I predict it will be full by the end of the year." The centre has a reception area, elders centre, day care centre, band offices, business offices, and other features like a gymnasium and a full kitchen.
     

"Part of the building is a gymnasium with a higher roof that reduces square footage on the second floor." The facility was built to support a community of about 3,000 people in Mt Currie, and in the long run a building construction of this type should last 50 years. Mt. Currie has two sites, says Kersbergen, "including the old settlement and a new site up the hill that has a medical centre, fire hall, and grocery store."
     

Leonard Andrew is the chief, says Kersbergen, "and his brother Fraser was the superintendent on the community centre project." The community is growing and developing capacity to house people. "There will be a few homes built in the new area and geothermal has been proposed," but the go-ahead could be an INAC decision, and, "Will they ante up the extra money to go geothermal?"

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.