The government of Alberta is considering converting abandoned oil and gas wells to a source of geothermal power, either for electric power generation or just heat.
A story by author Nick Wilson October 18 in the publication Alberta Oil details what’s involved – the absence of a straightforward regulatory pathway for the conversion, “byzantine” overlapping regulations, legal liability standards for wells that have fallen below their initial production levels, suitable borehole temperatures, and distance of a potential site from a heat customer or a grid interconnection. However, the province has some 78,000 suspended wells that potentially could be made to produce useful energy, as well as create jobs. The author lists cases in Texas, Mississippi and North Dakota that generate electrical power from converted wells. Visit energynow.ca for the full story, “Alberta government eyes geothermal fix to abandoned well crisis.”