Canada: Abandoned Gas Well to be Re-Purposed for District Geothermal Heating Project

Alberta town hopes to pull new kind of energy from old gas well (CBC)

The town and Calgary-based Epoch Energy propose to re-open an abandoned gas well near the community and use heat from the bottom of the hole to warm municipal buildings.

Water five kilometres down simmers at 120 C. It would be pumped topside and used to warm another fluid, which would be piped downtown to the networked buildings. The water would then be re-injected.

One study has run the numbers for 12 public buildings, including schools, government offices, the hospital and the RCMP detachment. The $10.2 million cost would be paid back in 16 years at current natural gas prices. The town would cut its CO2 emissions — and associated carbon tax costs — by 3,795 tonnes a year.

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