We get letters…
It occurs to me this is something you might want to investigate. [Saskatoon based Deepcorp] is proposing to build a geothermal generating plant in the far southeast corner of Sask., beyond Estevan. Supposedly the principals in this deal have an agreement in place with Sask Power to designate it as a “hydroelectric” facility, thus permitting a 40-year electricity supply contract, and a price several cents per kWh above the wholesale price of power from coal plants.
Apparently, exploratory drilling for gas/oil has disclosed the presence of a large volume of hot water (118C) in a formation just above the basement rock. They propose to pump this hot water to surface, use it as a heat source for turbines using a low-boiling point working fluid, and returning the now-cooled water to a disposal well in a higher formation. The proposal calls for a 5 mW pilot plant, growing ultimately to 500 mW.
Calling it a “hydro” plant does not make it so, even if Sask Power goes along with the deception, and further, that we both know schemes of this nature would never even be considered if the AGW fraud with its spurious demands for “carbon-free” power were not being peddled by the usual suspects. Also, I have serious doubts that they will ever get their pilot plant up and running. I foresee several potential problems:
1. The water will lose heat as it comes up the wellbore, and will arrive at
less than the formation temperature, so less heat to be exploited.
2. Low-temperature heat engines are inherently inefficient.
3. The source water is probably laden with dissolved salts. It’s fossil
ocean after all. As temperature and pressure are reduced as it comes up the
wellbore, some of those salts may precipitate out, and clog the wellbore or
the tubing. And the hot saline water will be exceedingly corrosive to the
tubing and well casing, and pumps.
4. It’s also quite possible that the hot water will deplete fairly quickly,
and if the formation has good permeability, it will soon be replaced by
cooler water from updip in the formation, again reducing the possible heat
recoverable.
Maybe there will be something on Sask Power’s Web site? I don’t think there is anything actually crooked going on here. But mis-designating this proposal as a “hydro” project stinks to high Heaven. Otherwise, it’s just another pie-in-the-sky wish-project, seeking to capitalize on the carbon scam, and the Wall government should not be touching it.
By the way, it just occurred to me that the way this deal is structured, the
company could run a completely worthless generating plant, buy coal power
from the power plants near Estevan, and resell it at a profit to Sask Power.
Not that I’m accusing them of planning this, but temptation might overtake
them if they had endless trouble with their project.
Hope you found the above interesting.
Emphasis mine. Why the hell an energy rich province would use stuff that works to subsidize stuff that doesn’t, all at the expense of SaskPower customers is anyone’s guess, but it’s the type of scheme known to get previous provincial governments in deep, deep trouble. But when it comes to politicians meddling in the private sector, there’s no such thing as a “lesson learned”, I suppose.
Any and all feedback on this is welcome.
