Richard Dooley, Canwest News Service, June 07, 2008

Thousands of kilometres of unused mines in the former coal mining capital of Canada could be getting new life as a source of clean, renewable energy to heat schools and hospitals in one of the largest geothermal projects ever contemplated.

Cape Breton sits on top of 3,200 kilometres of unused underground coal mines, some stretching far out under the Atlantic Ocean. The mines once supplied Canada with half its coal requirements.

Since the last underground coal mine shut down in 2000, the mines have been allowed to flood with water – which is being warmed by the heat of the Earth. The mine water remains at a constant temperature of between 9 and 15 C, depending on the depth of the shaft.

The Cape Breton Development Corporation and Cape Breton University are now looking at ways of tapping into that warm mine water by using heat-capturing technology to warm everything from hospitals to elementary schools.

The project, which is expected to get underway later this summer, will look at mines in Glace Bay, New Waterford and Sydney Mines as potential heat sources.

“Almost every home and business in the area sits over these old workings,” said Gerard Shaw, manager of corporate legacy for the Cape Breton Development Corporation.

That makes the potential for using geothermal energy enormous in Cape Breton – to heat existing buildings and to attract builders to the area.

The development corporation, or Devco as it’s known, is already talking with a local school board about using geothermal energy to heat a new elementary school in Glace Bay.

The Cape Breton Regional Hospital is doing an engineering study to decide how to retrofit one of its facilities to utilize mine water as a heat source. Shaw says subdivision developers are also interested in the feasibility study and the pilot project, which is expected to start in September.

“We see this as a great opportunity and something we can leave as a legacy to the mining communities,” he said.

The idea is not new, but the scale being contemplated in Cape Breton is novel.

The Ropal Can Am packaging plant in Springhill N.S. is heated with geothermal power from a nearby abandoned coal mine.

Geothermal heating is used in Scotland and in northern Canada. The U.S. is taking the idea one step further by testing the feasibility of drilling deep bore holes into the crust of the Earth – six or seven kilometres deep – to tap into geothermal energy.

In Cape Breton, the geothermal energy would work in a loop. Warm water will be pumped out of the mines, circulated through heat exchangers, then returned to the mines to be re-warmed.

“It’s the same principle as the hot water heater in your basement,” Cape Breton University Dean of Research Harvey Johnstone said.
There is no shortage of water in the abandoned mine shafts. Scientists estimate there could be as much as one trillion litres of water sitting below the Cape Breton mining communities.

“So that’s part of the study, to see what the capacity is and how much energy can be extracted,” Johnstone said.

The university is so excited by the prospect of geothermal “mining” that it created a special research chair.

Other uses for the coal mines are also being contemplated.

Nova Scotia Power Inc. and Dalhousie University are researching the possibility of using old mines to store carbon dioxide emissions. Research is also underway on methods of converting geothermal energy into electricity and extracting methane from unused coal seams.

© Canwest News Service 2008

Geothermal could meet 10 percent of U.S. needs by 2050, it finds

U.S. Department of Energy – Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
Geothermal Technologies Program

November 9, 2006

Some 58 new geothermal energy projects are now under development in the U.S., according to a survey by the Geothermal Energy Association (GEA) — the industry trade group. “This represents the U.S. geothermal industry’s most dramatic wave of expansion since the 1980s,” noted Karl Gawell, GEA’s executive director.

These projects, when developed, would provide up to 2,250 megawatts of electric power capacity, generating approximately 18 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually. These additions would serve the needs of 1.8 million households, producing electric power roughly equivalent to all U.S. wind facilities operating in 2005. This would almost double installed U.S. geothermal power capacity to over 5,000 MW, according to GEA.

“The good news is that federal and state incentives to promote geothermal energy are paying off. We are seeing a geothermal power renaissance in the U.S.,” stated Gawell. “The bad news is that some projects are already being put on hold because of the impending deadline for the federal production tax credit,” he added.

As part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, Congress expanded the full production tax credit (PTC) to include new geothermal facilities. Prior to 2005, the PTC was limited to new wind projects and has been widely credited with spurring the expansion of the U.S. wind industry over the past decade. But, the deadline for plants to be on-line and qualify for the credit was extended for only two years, or to Dec. 31, 2007.

“Geothermal and other baseload renewable power plants take several years to build and many of these plants can’t be on-line by the Dec. 31, 2007 deadline,” Gawell stated. “The PTC deadline urgently needs to be extended.”

The new GEA survey identifies power projects under development in Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon and Utah and classifies their stage of development. Since the last survey in March 2006, Alaska has been added to the list of states producing geothermal power and a dozen new U.S. geothermal projects have been initiated.

Details of the new survey will be made public on Tuesday, Nov. 14, at the Geothermal Development and Finance Workshop at the L’Enfant Plaza Hotel in Washington, D.C. The daylong event is sponsored by GEA and GLITNIR Bank of Iceland. It will feature speakers including Assistant Secretary of Energy Andrew Karsner; key House and Senate staff; leading geothermal project developers, financiers and consultants; and federal and state government representatives. More information about the workshop is available at http://www.geo-energy.org or 202-454-5261. http://www.usnewswire.com

Source:http://www1.eere.energy.gov/geothermal/printable_versions/news_detail.html?news_id=10399

By Neal Sandler (BusinessWeek.com)

A Mideast nation with no oil of its own, Israel is increasingly tapping into a different kind of resource—the inventiveness and persistence of its scientists and entrepreneurs. From shale oil to solar power, Israeli companies are becoming world leaders in alternative energy, exporting their technology to customers worldwide while at the same time reducing Israel’s dependence on costly oil imports.

It’s a good time to be pushing into renewables. As concerns mount over hydrocarbon-induced global warming, interest is surging in non-polluting energy sources. On Oct. 30, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, for instance, released a comprehensive new report on global warming and warned that the consequences of failing to act “are literally disastrous.” At the same time, oil prices are near historically high levels, which makes alternatives more cost-competitive.

One of Israel’s mostly unlikely success stories, given the lack of local geysers, is Yavne-based Ormat Industries (ORA), which has become a global leader in geothermal energy. Founded in 1965 by Lucien and Yehudit Bronicki, a husband-and-wife team who now serve, respectively, as chairman and CEO, Ormat booked revenues of $257 million in 2005 and has a market capitalization of more than $1.3 billion.

Plant Growth

Ormat’s Nasdaq-traded shares have more than tripled since the company listed in the U.S. two years ago. “Ormat is one of the hottest renewable energy companies on Wall Street,” says Len Rosen, Lehman Brothers country head for Israel. Even after that run-up, brokerage UBS issued a report in mid-October saying the stock was still trading at a substantial discount.

Why the excitement? Much of Ormat’s success owes to a breakthrough turbine design developed by the Bronickis that permits renewable energy sources such as geothermal or solar-heated steam to be converted into electricity more efficiently. After decades of selling turbines alone, Ormat in the mid 1990s started building geothermal plants of its own around the world that use its super-efficient turbine technology.

The company now operates 11 plants in five countries, including facilities in California, Nevada, and Hawaii, that collectively produce some 360 megawatts of power—enough to power a city of about 500,000 people. Ormat sells the power generated at these plants to local utilities and books a tidy profit. Net earnings in 2005 reached $15.2 million, or 5.9% of revenues—and topped 12.25% of revenues in this year’s first half.

Heat Recycling

Of even greater interest to investors, Ormat and two partners—Japan’s Itochu and Indonesia’s Medco Energi International—won a tender in July to construct a new 340 megawatt geothermal power project on the island of Sumatra, the largest such facility in history. This and other expansion plans will boost the company’s production capacity 80% by the end of 2008.

Ormat turbines also help wring more power out of conventional energy sources. At gas-fired electricity plants in North and South Dakota, the company has installed systems that recover heat normally “wasted” in production and convert it into additional electricity. Similar projects are under construction in Washington State and Canada. Ormat’s “recovered energy power generation” business earned $9.2 million in revenues the first six months of this year, up from less than $1 million a year earlier.

Now, the company is branching out into related fields. In the early 1990s, Ormat developed a technology for producing oil from shale. But with oil prices low at the time, the Israeli government was unwilling to back an ambitious project to develop the country’s huge shale reserves (see BusinessWeek.com, 7/5/06, “Israel Presses for Oil from Shale”).

Fuel Farmers

Now, Ormat has adapted the technology for use in the tar sands of Canada’s Alberta province, where it’s being used in a project run by Opti Canada set to begin production this year. Ormat has a 7.6% stake in the publicly traded Canadian company.

In September, Ormat went even further afield, announcing its aim to commercialize a new 100% plant-based biodiesel fuel being developed with an as-yet-undisclosed local academic institution. “The trick to remaining competitive is to focus on plants that have high yields and that are not used as food,” says Bronicki.

Ormat will invest $60 million over the next three years in the project. If it’s successful, the Bronickis thinks Africa and other places could allocate large tracts of land to grow fuel-producing plants.

Sounds grandiose—but then, dreaming big helped the Bronickis keep Ormat alive through decades of struggle. French-born Lucien developed the original turbine with the aim of tapping into renewable energy sources in remote areas. Unlike rival offerings of the time, which tended to be small and unproductive, Bronicki’s more efficient turbine could generate up to 10 megawatts of power.

Letting Off Steam

In the late 1970s, Lucien Bronicki wasn’t able to persuade the Israeli government to fund an ambitious solar-energy project using Ormat’s turbines. So Bronicki set his sights instead on geothermal, which harnesses steam, heat, or hot water from geysers or hot springs on the earth’s surface to produce electricity. Well known in locales such as Iceland and the Philippines, geothermal is now growing in the U.S., Guatemala, Kenya, and other countries thanks to high oil prices and environmental concerns.

Geothermal’s great advantage over other renewables such as solar and wind power is that it isn’t dependent on the elements, and produces continuous power. Indeed, many geothermal projects are already competitive with plants run on fossil fuels. The big drawback is that geothermal plants tend to be small. Depending on the strength of the natural source, they’re usually no more than 100 megawatts in capacity.

Still, there’s enormous opportunity. “We’ve only scratched the surface,” says Ormat CEO Yehudit Bronicki. Worldwide, geothermal plants now produce 8,900 megawatts of power, or about enough to supply a midsized U.S. state such as New Jersey. The known potential is at least eight times greater, or 72,000 megawatts, she adds, “and with additional research and development the figure could be nearly double.” The U.S. and Indonesia are among the countries with the largest geothermal potential.

Ready to Burn

Prospects are less clear for Ormat’s detour into biodiesel. Most biomass fuels today are made from a mixture of conventional diesel and vegetable oils, most commonly soy and canola. One challenge facing Ormat’s quest for a non-edible oil alternative is to develop a product that can be used without adapting car engines.

“If they’re successful this could prove to be a major source of income for the company in the years to come,” predicts Yuval Zaira, an analyst at Israel Brokerage Investment, a Tel Aviv-based investment bank.

After decades of fighting an uphill battle for acceptance, the Bronickis believe renewable energy is finally here to stay. It’s not just because of higher oil prices but also the rising concern over global warming. “Only if oil prices plunge to $12 a barrel will people reconsider whether renewable energy is worth the current premium,” says Lucien Bronicki. It hasn’t been an easy climb, but at least nowadays there’s no struggle for recognition.

Sandler is a correspondent for BusinessWeek in Jerusalem.

Source: http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/nov2006/gb20061101_030101.htm?chan=globalbiz_europe_today%27s+top+story