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D E C E M B E R / J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 0
DEEP Earth Energy
advancing towards
geothermal energy
production
by Jane Foutz
I
n September, 2018, Resource World
Magazine reported on the DEEP Earth
Energy Production Corp. (DEEP)
team's geothermal energy project where
sigificant progress has been made since
that time.
DEEP, headquartered in Saskatoon,
Saskatchewan, is building the country's
first geothermal power plant outside of
Estevan, Saskatchewan. The land for the
power plant is south of Torquay, near the
United States border.
Drilling a geothermal hot water target
began in November, 2018. "Geothermal
is one of the most dependable sources of
renewable energy globally and the only
renewable that can produce reliable base-
load power that runs 24/7," said Kirsten
Marcia, DEEP's President and CEO.
The facility will use what is known
as organic rankine cycle (ORC) turbine
technology to generate clean baseload
power. This well-established technology
pumps the geothermal fluid through heat
exchangers, then transfers that heat to a
working fluid (like butane) that vaporizes
and drives a generator to produce electric-
ity. From a mining perspective, geothermal
power generation is heat mining. Heat is
the resource with hot brine pumped to the
surface in order to utilize this inexhaust-
ible source of energy.
This project has the potential to launch
Canada's geothermal power industry
alongside the United States, which has
been leading this sector globally for
decades.
According to Marcia, DEEP's long-term
strategy is to build hundreds of mega-
watts of geothermal power facilities with
a vision of a cleaner energy future for
Saskatchewan, supported by SaskPower's
goal to reduce emissions from 2005 levels
by 40% by 2030. The proposed facility
