According to Leigh Bond, president of Threshold Energies Corporation in St. Albert and founding chairman of the Alberta Geothermal Energy Association, there are approximately 2,000 installations of geothermal energy in Alberta, fairly evenly distributed between the Edmonton and Calgary areas.

“There is enough sunshine that falls on Alberta in a day to create energy for the whole world,” says Bond. “With geothermal, we have solved the storage problem — below the frost line, where heat is stored.”
To access that heat for use in home or commercial heating, hot water, or electricity, high-density polyethylene pipes are laid vertically or horizontally (depending on location and other factors) in the ground. Water travels through the pipes, pulling heat from the ground and  transferring it to the heat pump in the home. As the water flows from the ground to the heat pump, the heat pump extracts the heat from the water via a heat exchanger and circulates that heat throughout the building via forced air or hot water.

The constant ground temperature can also be employed for cooling. In the heat of summer, the temperature below ground is lower than that of the air (the ground temperature on which the system draws is approximately 6°C in Alberta), and the system works in reverse, pulling heat from the air in the home and transferring it below ground.

The positive environmental impact of installing a geothermal system is significant — equivalent to taking two cars off the road.

Bond, who works with other green technologies such as solar, wind and hydrogen, explains that the cost per watt for geothermal energy is $3, while photovoltaic solar power costs $10 per watt and wind power $5 per watt. Overall cost of installation varies based on the size of the building and the insulation. Bond says the cost to install a geothermal heating system for a 1,200-square-foot bungalow is approximately $35,000.

As Bond explains, approximately half of this cost is the heat pump and tanks that go in your basement which will need to be replaced in 30-40 years and is a depreciating asset. The other half is for installation and the underground infrastructure and is an appreciating asset. Bond likens it to putting that half of the investment into an RRSP as that money “will go up in value at least at the rate of inflation.”

He also points out that it has been tracked and proven in the United States that there is a perceived incremental value in geothermal, and that a home with geothermal will sell for 11-17 per cent more than it would have without geothermal.

Estimated payback on a geothermal system in Canada, according to the federal government, is five to six years on a new home and eight to nine years on a retrofit, depending on the local utility costs, says Doug Kinch of Ground Source Energy in Calgary. He explains that the in-ground pipes do not degrade (remember, plastic is inherently nonbiodegradable) and that the systems come with a warranty (two years to lifetime on heat pumps; 60 years on pipes).

Subsidies and grants are available from the government, both federal and provincial. The Canadian government offers a $4,175 grant for the retrofit installation of geothermal, plus the federal government’s ECOenergy grant (which equals a $1,350 tax incentive this year) can be used toward geothermal. The Alberta government also offers a $10,000 grant for new homes built with an efficiency rating of more than 86, of which installing geothermal can be a part. Commercial projects are eligible for a 50 per cent write-off on a geothermal installation through capital cost allowance class 43.2.   NL