Heat transition for major communities supported by geothermal energy development of the Alberta Basin, Canada

Abstract

We examined the potential of geothermal energy to supply power and heat for larger communities (population > 10,000) located over the Alberta Basin in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (WCSB). The major cities and seven towns in Alberta examined, with a combined total population of >2,500,000 people, were scrutinized for their geothermal potential. Depending on T (°C) and production rate (kg/s) the range of households that are feasible to be heated is in the 100’s to 1000’s for produced water >70 °C and flow rates of 30−80 kg/s. These are available in most of the deep foreland basin in western Alberta and in most of the larger population centers, outside the shallow and ‘cold’ parts of the basin in the east. As space heating is the dominant energy demand in Canada, with single households representing ∼80% of energy usage, the geothermal heating transition in Alberta would be the best option for municipalities. Power production is feasible in just a few Alberta communities located over the deeper parts of the basin, still requiring >140 °C temperatures and high production rates (>80 kg/s) due to low efficiency of power plants (some 10%) and economics of the system. The range of the feasible net power production is assessed between single decimals of MW electrical and up to maximum of 2.7 MW in deep hot high production systems.