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| (Courtesy Leduc #1 Energy Discovery Center) |
Disused oil and gas wells dotting Canada’s energy heartland may bear fruit for Alberta’s farmers under a proposal to use waste heat from the idle facilities to allow crops to grow, even in the country’s harsh winter conditions.
Provincial legislator Shaye Anderson wants the Alberta government to allow an old well to be converted to geothermal energy to heat an 8,000-square-foot greenhouse. Currently the wells can only be used for extracting hydrocarbons.
The Living Energy Project pilot could help tackle the issue of Alberta’s 78,000 disused wells and provide jobs for thousands of unemployed oil field services workers, laid off as a result of the two-year slump in global crude prices.