Clean electricity generated close to where you live — and increasingly owned by the people, businesses, and communities that use it. Solar experts and researchers from University of British Columbia Okanagan know how distributed energy systems and next-generation solar materials could transform Canada’s energy future, strengthen energy independence, and create opportunities for Canadian manufacturing and innovation.
Categories: Energy - Solar
When even Business In Vancouver spots an absurd causality in BC Hydro’s self-inflicted power demand "crisis" (mortal wounds!) be assured…
Psst! Clean Energy? Don’t tell “Cowboy” Carney or his MAGA best girl Danielle Smith about repurposing oil and gas wells…
Bread and Circuses? Bread or Circuses? Who will choose for us? Consider the Electric Vehicle... A while back 18 automobile…
Thanks Skylab for your content. I am a big fan of Naomi Klein and have read her book 'The Shock…
[…] It is interesting to note that the Parliamentary Budget Officer’s estimate of a $578 million cost for Vancouver’s round-ball…
in-sights.ca 
Psst!
Clean Energy? Don’t tell “Cowboy” Carney or his MAGA best girl Danielle Smith about repurposing oil and gas wells for Geothermal Energy!
{Unfortunately Nature put up a paywall, but the idea?}
https://www.nature.com/articles/s44287-025-00161-x
Amid geopolitical crises and economic challenges, it is crucial to reassess the future role of fossil fuel resources, particularly oil and gas fields. A promising opportunity now exists to repurpose these fields for geothermal energy, helping to accelerate the energy transition while mitigating the risk of resource stranding.
More detail? There’s this
Click to access 73300-the-feasibility-of-repurposing-oil-and-gas-wells-f-01.pdf
Summary
In regions where oil and gas extraction has been on-going for decades, there is an inventory of wells that range from fully abandoned (plugged and well head removed), to suspended, to operational.
In Alberta, there are over 450,000 wells (Alberta Energy Regulator, 2022) that have been drilled since the early decades of the 20th century (Figure 1). The financial states of companies who hold these assets have changed through time and many previously owned wells are now “orphaned.” Orphan wells may range in status from abandoned to operational, but the most important aspect is the lack of a viable company that can be held responsible for the reclamation of the wells and surface disturbance (pad, roads, pipelines, etc.) (Alberta Energy Regulator, 2022). All wells have a liability associated with them to ensure safe and environmentally responsible abandonment and reclamation.
In Alberta, this liability is estimated at $100 billion dollars (McNeill, 2018). Given the potential reclamation costs and re-utilization possibilities of these and future wells, we outline the investigative process of reviewing, analyzing, and assessing suspended and active wells in Alberta for their geothermal potential.
https://ww3.rics.org/uk/en/journals/land-journal/mine-water-heats-homes-businesses.html
Project draws geothermal heat from former mine
A pioneering project to extract heat from water-filled mine workings shows that many of Britain’s 23,000 disused deep coal mines could help provide low-carbon heat for local networks
This project has demonstrated that our disused mining infrastructure can provide a secure source of heat that may be scaled up while reducing carbon emissions by around 1,800 tonnes per annum.
Offering lower-than-market prices for heat, the scheme enables customers to access low-carbon heat and removes the need for domestic boilers. More widely, mine water heat networks in disused coalfields can provide new business opportunities in building and operating networks.
Mine water heat networks use existing technology such as heat pumps, heat exchangers and boreholes that can contribute to net-zero targets now, helping to decarbonise heat supply in former mining areas. We are also exploring other opportunities for this resource, such as cooling, thermal storage and food production.
The North East of England has several projects in planning, including a development of 1,500 homes at Seaham Garden Village and a 10MW project for Sunderland city centre. These continue the region’s rich history of energy innovation, much of which was derived from coal. It is fitting that we are now able to explore new ways to use this as part of the low-carbon transition.
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