By Eraina Hooyer
Staff Reporter
An advocate for a better environment and a better future is educating the public and making it known about the positive uses of geothermal energy.
Richard McKelvie hosted an information evening at the Ponoka United Church on July 11 for those interested in finding a greener way to live.
“I think it went very well,” said McKelvie. “The information gives people room for hope, it is all the things that we need.”
McKelvie, who lives just outside of Ponoka in an environmentally friendly house, is passionate about his research and believes that geothermal energy is the key answer to maintaining the earth.
“I’m a lifelong activist and it just should be done,” he said. “Greenhouse gases are real to me and I’m always looking for things that are better. I zeroed in on geothermal energy and was like, ‘ah, there’s the silver bullet’.”
Geothermal energy is a way of producing electricity using the heat from the earth’s core. The resource has been used for hundreds of years in one way or another and has been used to generate electricity for over 60 years. He says it is a renewable and a virtually inexhaustible source of energy.
Geothermal energy can be used for heating and cooling homes and generating electricity. The hot dry rock geothermal or Enhanced Geothermal System Technology (EGS) is, McKevlie believes, a very important source as it can be done anywhere in the world.
With EGS the pipes are sent down into the earth’s crest into hot dry rock formations that heat up the water that is pumped down and continues with the cycle. Almost the same is done with generating electricity, or hydrothermal energy. The pipes are put into water bearing zones in the earth’s crest, the water comes out as steam and is used to turn a turbine that works with a generator to produce electricity.
Currently the province does not have one well and McKelvie is working on informing dignitaries and leaders of the province about geothermal electric production. He has been in contact with political representatives and is presently sending out letters to every MLA in the province.
“One of the major problems is that when you say the word geothermal a lot of people take it to mean a lot of different things and don’t realize what it is really all about,” he said. “I’m doing my best to present an option, make them aware and try to make my voice heard. I don’t think the province knows too much about it, I’ve sent out a couple of letters but have not heard a response.”
McKelvie says that according to a 2006 MIT study the United States has enough energy in hot rocks to supply the entire world’s current needs for 30,000 years.
There are geothermal plants across the globe and on the other side of the world Australia is leading in geothermal energy and plans to use hot rocks as their primary source of power on the entire continent.
Rumours of a hot dry rock geothermal well being made in Fort McMurray has given McKelvie hope for the future of geothermal energy in Alberta.
“There is talk that a consorting of four major oil well companies will put the first one in Fort McMurray,” he said.
McKelvie believes that if people know there is a better way than the other leading resources that they should not put up with the expensive and dirty resources but move forward with a cleaner and cheaper way to live.
“I emphasize that the public really has to exert some pressure and ask the hard questions of the decision makers,” said McKelvie. “I don’t blame them for not knowing now.”