Eavor Technologies Inc.’s test site east of Rocky Mountain House has silenced the doubters and proved the company’s innovative geothermal heating and power technology can be used on a city-sized scale.
“I know when we first started out as a company there was a lot of doubt from some of our critics that we would actually be able to do what we were proposing,” said Ryan Martin, a development engineer out of Eavor’s Calgary office.
But in the four years the central Alberta site called Eavor-Lite has been used as a test bed, laboratory and showcase for Eavor’s geothermal technology the company has proved it not only works but can be used for commercial-scale projects.
“So, it’s been really instrumental just from that regard, having real-world data points,” said Martin, adding the site proved that the math and theory were valid behind the innovative technology called Eavor-Loop that has been described as similar to a massive underground radiator.
“That’s been a really good asset to to sort of quell any of those doubts and conversations that it won’t work from a mathematical perspective.
“It’s also great to tour people who are interested in the technology such as potential investors. I think a lot of those investors really enjoyed the opportunity when they came to the Eavor-Lite site and were able to walk around and put their hand on the pipe and feel the heat coming out of it.”
Another project, called Eavor-Deep, was built in New Mexico to further test the geothermal technology. The results of that testing was used to develop a project in Gerestried, a town of about 25,000, where the geothermal system will be used to provide both heat and power.
Work on the commercial-scale plant in Germany began last year. Last summer, the first two drilling rigs began boring the four-kilometre deep holes that will be part of a closed-loop system circulating liquids through kilometres of underground well bores.
As the liquid circulates in an underground heat exchanger that requires no pumping it picks up heat before returning to the surface. The liquid can then be used as a heat source or to generate power through heat-to-energy technology.
“What we’re doing is basically four individual Eavor-Loop systems from the same surface location,” said Martin.
When the two wells reach depth, horizontal drilling links the bores together to create the closed-loop system.
“We’re thinking that first loop is going to come online sometime next year.” The power plants are being built at the same time and electricity is expected to start flowing into the grid sometime in the second half of 2024.
“From there, we’re going to be drilling three additional loop systems similar in design to the first one.”
The system will be tied into Gerestried’s infrastructure to provide heat and power as needed.
“We’re really excited about it because it’s our first commercial-scale project and our first project in Europe. We’re excited for it as well because it’s going to unlock that whole market,” he said, adding Eavor is already investigating other opportunities in Germany and Netherlands.
“Once we start seeing success and results from this project we’re going to really start getting the wheel turning on those others.”
The company is also looking at projects in North America, including Vancouver where the company is teaming up with Creative Energy, a company which builds, owns and operates sustainable district energy systems, to do a feasibility study on using the Eavor-Loop system there. The company is also looking at opportunities in Toronto.
“In a lot of the major cities we’re looking into opportunities to feed into their district heat systems. I think Canada is exciting for us because we have such drilling expertise here.”
Last October, Eavor was awarded a contract with the U.S. Air Force to provide Eavor-Loop-generated geothermal energy to the Joint Base San Antonio facility in Texas.