Environment groups urge NDP to turn to geothermal heating

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This article was published 06/02/2024 (611 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A coalition of Manitoba environmental groups is calling on the NDP government to launch a new geothermal utility to switch over electrically heated homes to ground-source heat to meet the province’s surging electricity needs.

Converting homes to geothermal heating and cooling systems could open up 300-400 megawatts of additional electricity — about double the 200 MW generated by the $1.3-billion Wuskwatim dam in the north, according to Manitoba Climate Action Team.

While nearly 60 per cent of Manitoba homes are heated with natural gas, enough are heated by electricity to make a huge difference by freeing up power for future needs, including electric vehicles, said coalition member Ed Lohrenz.

“They did same thing in Winnipeg in the ’50s, installing gas pipelines up and down the streets,” said Lohrenz, who has worked across North America designing ground-source heat pump systems.

“It’s not small but the benefits are huge.”

Lohrenz couldn’t provide a cost estimate for setting up a geothermal power utility to draw heat out of the ground and pipe it into homes mostly outside of Winnipeg. Such infrastructure, he said, has always been paid for with very long-term mortgages to keep costs to consumers low.

That sort of utility-scale approach could provide carbon-free, year-round heating and cooling in all types of buildings, said Lohrenz, chief executive officer of GEOptimize Inc.

Ground-source geothermal is already used in several thousand Manitoba homes and in signature buildings such as Manitoba Hydro’s downtown headquarters, he said.

Manitoba is facing a power crunch. Models have shown electricity demand could double or triple in the next 20 years. However, the Crown utility does not plan to build any more hydro generating stations.

Hydro CEO Jay Grewal has proposed more agreements with the private sector to develop wind farms.

Meantime, the cabinet minister responsible for Manitoba Hydro, Adrien Sala, has said any new power generating systems ought to be publicly owned.

Sala hasn’t said how Manitoba will meet added demand or how to pay for it. Hydro already has a $24-billion debt from construction of the Keeyask generating station and Bipole III transmission line, and 33 cents of every dollar it takes in goes toward interest on that debt.

Although Manitoba has one of the world’s cleanest energy grids, thanks to hydroelectric power, electricity represents only about 30 per cent of the province’s actual energy use, according to a 2022 report by the environment minister’s advisory council.

Fossil fuels provide nearly 70 per cent of provincial energy use, primarily in transportation and heating buildings.

The Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act requires the government to establish climate targets and plans to achieve them at regular milestones on the pathway to net zero emissions by 2050. Under the act, the federal government must set an emissions reduction target for 2035 by Dec. 1, 2024.

“Our government is committed to decarbonization and ultimately hitting the net-zero 2050 target,” Sala said in an interview.

“A big part of that is going to be ensuring that we support the expansion of geothermal heating in Manitoba,” the finance minister said. “The faster we can do that, the faster we can save Manitobans money, reduce energy imports from other provinces and the more energy we can ultimately save to apply towards meeting our other energy needs here in the province.”

The NDP promised to convert 5,000 homes currently using electric heat to geothermal or ground-source heat pumps in its first four years.

“Our government knows that geothermal heat presents a significant opportunity for Manitobans,” said Sala. “Geothermal heat can drastically reduce energy costs and, at the same time, the use of geothermal can create significant energy savings opportunities for our hydroelectric system.

“One of the most exciting parts about this is that we can return energy dollars to Manitoba because we’ll reduce the amount of natural gas we would need to import from Alberta.”

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Sala wouldn’t commit to more than 5,000 homes — never mind establishing a utility to ramp up geothermal home conversions on a provincial scale.

“The commitment that we brought forward in the election, we thought, was very achievable,” the NDP MLA said. “We want to focus on getting this started in a good way, while we help to create energy efficiencies.”

Crown corporation Efficiency Manitoba will oversee the program “because we think it’s the right place to start,” Sala said, noting the details will be unveiled in the spring budget.

“It’s something that no government in this province has ever placed this degree of focus on. I think it signals our commitment to the climate challenge we’re facing.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

Carol Sanders
Legislature reporter

Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol.

Every piece of reporting Carol produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.