Alberta
Calgary geothermal tech leader Eavor awarded $130 million CND grant from EU to help European energy security
News Release from Eavor Technologies Inc.
Eavor’s next-generation geothermal project awarded €91,6 million grant from the European Innovation Fund
Eavor Technologies Inc. and Eavor Erdwärme Geretsried GmbH (together “Eavor”), the leader in globally scalable geothermal closed-loop technology, has been awarded a €91,6 million grant from the European Innovation Fund (“EIF”), in support of the Eavor-Europe™ geothermal project already under construction in Bavaria south of Munich near the town of Geretsried, Germany.
The project is the world’s first commercial implementation of an Eavor-Loop™, a showpiece of the zero-emissions heat and power production capabilities of next-generation geothermal technology, and a flagship site for the fundamental ability of Eavor-Loop™ to provide energy security and autonomy, globally.
Construction began in October 2022, with drilling scheduled to commence in July 2023. Two of Europe’s largest drilling rigs are already under a four-year contract with KCA-Deutag. An Organic Rankine Cycle (“ORC”) power plant is being designed and constructed simultaneously with drilling operations in collaboration with Turboden S.p.A., with the first energy production scheduled for Q4, 2024.
John Redfern, President, CEO and Co-Founder at Eavor Technologies Inc., stated: “I’d like to thank the European Commission. We at Eavor are humbled to be included in the EIF program alongside so many prestigious European multinationals. We believe this first commercial Eavor-Loop™ will open the floodgates to the broad implementation of what is the first truly scalable form of green baseload energy. In this way, we hope to help Europe solve its twin existential threats of Climate Change and lack of Energy Autonomy”.
The project will result in 8,2 MWe and ~44.000 tCO2e GHG emissions avoided per year including anticipated heat offtake and power sales. Eavor estimates that ~20.000 homes will be powered with clean energy harnessed from the Earth and up to 600 person-years of drilling services and powerplant/infrastructure jobs will be created during the construction phase of the project.
Philippe Dumas, Secretary General at the European Geothermal Energy Council, stated: “I’m glad to see the EC Innovation Fund supporting the geothermal project submitted by Eavor GmbH to commercially demonstrate innovative renewable district heating and power supply in Geretsried, Germany. Given the energy, climate and food security crisis as well as the need to meet the tripling of the geothermal target by 2030, this innovative project is of paramount importance: it will increase the security of electricity supply, help decarbonise the district heating sector, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and stimulate technological innovation all of which could also be replicated elsewhere.”
Daniel Mölk, President at Eavor GmbH, stated: “Eavor would like to thank regional stakeholders, the Bavarian/German Governments, the community, and operational partners generally. Eavor, and its project partners, Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc. and Enex Power Germany GmbH, are honoured to be so welcomed and supported by all.”
Project Summary
The Eavor-Loop™ at Geretsried, Germany will provide clean baseload energy for district heating and/or power generation. It consists of multiple large underground radiators buried at 4,500 metres. Operating under a natural thermosiphon requiring no pump and no aquifer, clean fresh water will circulate through the radiator carrying the heat to surface.
With practically no greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions during operation, Eavor Loop will avoid almost 100% of the emissions compared to the reference scenario. Eavor Loop is also an environmentally friendly solution: it can be installed virtually anywhere providing the EU with a scalable, secure source of renewable heat and power. An on-site visitor centre will be built and open to the public interested to know more about the technology and the operations of this first-of-kind implementation. – Eavor-Europe™ Webpage
About the European Innovation Fund (EUIF):
With projected revenue of more than €38 billion by 2030 from the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), the Innovation Fund aims to create the right financial incentives for companies and public authorities to invest in the next generation of low-carbon technologies and give EU companies a first-mover advantage to become global technology leaders. The EUIF focuses on highly innovative technologies and big flagship projects within Europe. The European Commission is tasked with overall management and implementation of the fund and has designed the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) as the implementing body of the fund.
The first call for large-scale projects awarded grants of €1.1 billion to 7 projects in energy-intensive industries, hydrogen, carbon capture, use and storage, and renewable energy.
The projects selected under the €1.8 billion second call for large-scale projects were evaluated by independent experts based on their ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared to traditional technologies and to innovate beyond the state-of-the-art, while being sufficiently mature for deployment. Other selection criteria included the projects’ potential for scalability and cost effectiveness. – Innovation Fund
Reference material: Innovation Fund projects (europa.eu)
About Eavor Technologies Inc.
Eavor (pronounced “Ever”) is a technology-based energy company led by a team dedicated to creating a clean, reliable, and affordable energy future on a global scale. Eavor’s solution (Eavor-Loop™) represents the world’s first truly scalable form of clean, dispatchable, and flexible power. Eavor achieves this by mitigating or eliminating many of the issues that have traditionally hindered geothermal energy. Eavor instead circulates a benign working fluid that is completely isolated from the environment in a closed-loop, through a massive subsurface radiator. This radiator simply collects heat from the natural geothermal gradient of the Earth via conduction. [email protected] | Eavor.com
About KCA Deutag:
With over 130 years of experience, KCA Deutag is a leading drilling, engineering and technology company working onshore and offshore with a focus on safety, quality and operational performance. We operate approximately 81 drilling rigs in 14 countries, either directly or through our affiliates, employing people in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, the Caspian Sea and Canada. KCA Deutag consists of our business units: Land, Offshore and Kenera. Land and Offshore are our operational divisions delivering safe, effective, trouble-free operations across 20 countries. Kenera brings together our design and engineering specialists RDS and land rig and oilfield manufacturer Bentec under one business unit. Kenera was established to expand our offering in both hydrocarbons and energy transition markets, with three dedicated segments covering innovative services, technology and engineering, and manufacturing. For further information on KCA Deutag please visit kcadeutag.com
About Turboden:
Turboden S.p.A., Mitsubishi Heavy Industries froup company, is an Italian firm and a global leader in the design, manufacture, and maintenance of Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) systems, highly suitable for distributed generation, that generate electric and thermal power exploiting multiple sources, such as renewables (biomass and geothermal energy), traditional fuels, and waste heat from industrial processes, waste incinerators, engines, or gas turbines. Today Turboden expands its technological solutions with gas expanders and large heat pumps to play a broader role in the decarbonisation of the district heating sector and of energy-intensive industrial processes. turboden.com
Alberta
New pipeline from Alberta would benefit all Canadians—despite claims from B.C. premier
From the Fraser Institute
The pending Memorandum of Understanding between the Carney government and the Alberta governments will reportedly support a new oil pipeline from Alberta’s oilsands to British Columbia’s tidewater. But B.C. Premier David Eby continues his increasingly strident—and factually challenged—opposition to the whole idea.
Eby’s arguments against a new pipeline are simply illogical and technically incorrect.
First, he argues that any pipeline would pose unmitigated risks to B.C.’s coastal environment, but this is wrong for several reasons. The history of oil transport off of Canada’s coasts is one of incredible safety, whether of Canadian or foreign origin, long predating federal Bill C-48’s tanker ban. New pipelines and additional transport of oil from (and along) B.C. coastal waters is likely very low environmental risk. In the meantime, a regular stream of oil tankers and large fuel-capacity ships have been cruising up and down the B.C. coast between Alaska and U.S. west coast ports for decades with great safety records.
Next, Eby argues that B.C.’s First Nations people oppose any such pipeline and will torpedo energy projects in B.C. But in reality, based on the history of the recently completed Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX) pipeline, First Nations opposition is quite contingent. The TMX project had signed 43 mutual benefit/participation agreements with Indigenous groups along its route by 2018, 33 of which were in B.C. As of March 2023, the project had signed agreements with 81 out of 129 Indigenous community groups along the route worth $657 million, and the project had resulted in more than $4.8 billion in contracts with Indigenous businesses.
Back in 2019, another proposed energy project garnered serious interest among First Nations groups. The First Nations-proposed Eagle Spirit Energy Corridor, aimed to connect Alberta’s oilpatch to a port in Kitimat, B.C. (and ultimately overseas markets) had the buy-in of 35 First Nations groups along the proposed corridor, with equity-sharing agreements floated with 400 others. Energy Spirit, unfortunately, died in regulatory strangulation in the Trudeau government’s revised environmental assessment process, and with the passage of the B.C. tanker ban.
Premier Eby is perfectly free to opine and oppose the very thought of oil pipelines crossing B.C. But the Supreme Court of Canada has already ruled in a case about the TMX pipeline that B.C. does not have the authority to block infrastructure of national importance such as pipelines.
And it’s unreasonable and corrosive to public policy in Canada for leading government figures to adopt positions on important elements of public policy that are simply false, in blatant contradiction to recorded history and fact. Fact—if the energy industry is allowed to move oil reserves to markets other than the United States, this would be in the economic interest of all Canadians including those in B.C.
It must be repeated. Premier Eby’s objections to another Alberta pipeline are rooted in fallacy, not fact, and should be discounted by the federal government as it plans an agreement that would enable a project of national importance.
Alberta
Premier Danielle Smith says attacks on Alberta’s pro-family laws ‘show we’ve succeeded in a lot of ways’
From LifeSiteNews
Recent legislation to dial back ‘woke progressivism’ is intended to protect the rights of parents and children despite opposition from the left.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith took a shot at “woke progressivism” and detractors of her recent pro-family laws, noting that because wokeness went “too far,” the “dial” has turned in favor of parental rights and “no one” wants their “kid to transition behind their back.”
“We know that things went a little bit too far with woke progressivism on so many fronts and we’re trying to get back to the center, trying to get them back to the middle,” Smith said in a recent video message posted on the ruling United Conservative Party’s (UCP) official X account.
Smith, who has been battling the leftist opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) attacks on her recent pro-family legislation, noted how “we’ve succeeded in a lot of ways.”
“I think we have moved the dial on protecting children and the right of girls and women to participate in sports without having to face born male athletes,” mentioning that the Olympics just announced gender-confused athletes are not allowed to compete in male or female categories.
“I think we’re moving the dial on parental rights to make sure that they know what’s going on with their kids. No one wants their kid to be transitioned behind their back and not know. I mean, it doesn’t matter what your background is, you want to know what’s going on with your child.”
Smith also highlighted how conservatives have “changed the entire energy conversation in the country, we now have we now have more than 70 percent of Canadians saying they believe we should build pipelines, and that we should be an energy superpower.’
As reported by LifeSiteNews, Smith recently said her government will use a rare constitutional tool, the notwithstanding clause, to ensure three bills passed this year – a ban on transgender surgery for minors, stopping men from competing in women’s sports, and protecting kids from extreme aspects of the LGBT agenda – remain law after legal attacks from extremist activists.
Bill 26 was passed in December 2024, amending the Health Act to “prohibit regulated health professionals from performing sex reassignment surgeries on minors.”
Last year, Smith’s government also passed Bill 27, a law banning schools from hiding a child’s pronoun changes at school that will help protect kids from the extreme aspects of the LGBT agenda.
Bill 27 will also empower the education minister to, in effect, stop the spread of extreme forms of pro-LGBT ideology or anything else allowed to be taught in schools via third parties.
Bill 29, which became law last December, bans gender-confused men from competing in women’s sports, the first legislation of its kind in Canada. The law applies to all school boards, universities, and provincial sports organizations.
Alberta’s notwithstanding clause is like all other provinces’ clauses and was a condition Alberta agreed to before it signed onto the nation’s 1982 constitution.
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