(eavor.com)

By Sheldon Spackman

$50M project

Drayton Valley, Brazeau County exploring leading edge energy project

Aug 19, 2019 | 11:09 AM

The Town of Drayton Valley and Brazeau County hope to be on the leading edge of embracing a new twist on existing technology that could have a significant impact on the world’s energy industry.

Drayton Valley Town Council has unanimously approved moving ahead with a grant application for the construction of the world’s first-ever commercial Eavor Loop project in the Brazeau County-Drayton Valley area.

Officials say the roughly $50 million Eavor Loop project would use geothermal technology to generate electricity and/or thermal energy for both residents and businesses in the area, with potential grant funding to cover at least 50 per cent of the cost. The remainder is anticipated to be covered by Calgary-based Eavor Loop Technologies Inc, a “turn-key” partner in the project.

Drayton Valley mayor Michael Doerksen says it’s a project the Town and Brazeau County have been working together on for a while now, saying it’s not the typical geothermal that most people think of, but more of a convection cycle requiring two separate sites.

”It’s technology that can essentially be put anywhere in the world,” he explains. “You drill down to a depth where the formation of the rock is hot, so about three-and-a-half kilometres down. Then you start going horizontal for five to six kilometres, then you’ll have a rig on the other side that’s kind of meeting.”

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Doerksen says the project would specialize in technology they’re already familiar with – horizontal drilling.

“This is actually a closed-loop system, so you’ll have about 10 horizontal wells underneath the ground all connected at the surface and five of them bringing up hot water and five of them bringing down cool water,” says Doerksen. “The cold water gets pushed down because the hot water on the other side wants to move-up so it’s a continuous flow.”

Doerksen notes a pilot project already underway near Eckville which could result in an announcement on Aug. 21 of the first-ever Eavor Loop commercial project to open in Drayton Valley and Brazeau County sometime next year.

“They’re kind of doing it on a smaller scale just to prove the technology,” says Doerksen. “There’s oil companies from around the world that are watching them closely because they understand the impact that this could have on the world energy market when you’re talking about baseload renewable energy. So it’s really quite exciting for the Town of Drayton Valley and Brazeau County to have that here in our backyard.”

Doerksen says officials estimate each side of the Eavor Loop project could generate two megawatts of power.

“If you look at Alberta for instance, you could put this almost anywhere,” he exclaims. “If you put a thousand of these down, two megawatts on each end, so four megawatts, you could have four thousand megawatts of power which could be the significant driver for Green energy in Alberta for our grid. It could revolutionize the way that people think about energy.”

Although locations for the Drayton Valley-Brazeau County sites have yet to be determined for the proposed Eavor Loop project, Doerksen says they do have some ideas in mind.

“The two areas that we’re discussing is down by the Omniplex just because there’s a huge demand for electricity and heat in that area with having our facilities,” he explains. “More so to build a swimming pool if it’s down at that site, you’ll have two pieces of infrastructure that require a large amount of hot water and/or electricity. Certainly for us it’s either at the Omniplex or the Clean Energy Technology Centre.”

Doerksen says the project would provide a much-needed boost to the local energy workforce.

“It takes drilling rigs that drill for oil but now you’re drilling for heat,” he explains. “So it’s helping put those people back to work. So we would have two drilling rigs working for six to eight months in our backyard and the benefit that comes with that, so it’s an exciting opportunity.”

Officials say the Eavor Loop project would have zero cost to either municipality but each would be required to sign a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Eavor Loop.

Long-term implications identified include potential revenue generation through the partnership in an electricity and/or thermal energy utility.

A demonstration event at the Eavor-Lite site near Rocky Mountain House is taking place this Wednesday, Aug. 21 at 2 p.m. Buses depart Brazeau County Hall at noon and will return by 6:00 pm. Today (Monday) is your final day to register to attend by emailing admin-support@draytonvalley.ca