25-05-2025
Group announces innovative plan to transform abandoned oil wells: 'Our vision hasn't changed'
Fort Nelson First Nation in British Columbia, Canada, is an area littered with remnants of oil wells, but local communities are now looking to transform one into a sustainable geothermal power plant.
Using royalties gathered over the years from oil prospectors, an indigenous group aims to transform this old, polluting fuel source into one of the country's first 100% geothermal power plants, according to a report by Corporate Knights.
The community-owned plant is called Tu Deh-Kah, which translates to "boiling water," and the goal is for it to provide up to 15 megawatts of clean, geothermal electricity by 2027.
Fort Nelson's electricity grid is currently reliant on dirty fuels for power, and this project is an essential keystone in the region's shift towards more sustainable energy resources.
"We want to see a sustainable energy project in our territory that we own," said Taylor Behn-Tsakoza, a community liaison officer with Tu Deh-Kah.
First Nations, Inuit and Métis people are already leaders in Canada's green energy transition, as partners or beneficiaries in around 20% of the country's electricity-generating infrastructure, with most of it based on renewables, the report detailed.
Geothermal power plants use hot brine pumped from deep within the earth to provide heat or generate electricity. They convert it into steam to power generators, and once that water vapor has done its job, it's reinjected back into the underground reservoirs.
The Tu Deh-Kah team doesn't plan to waste any resources available in the old well. Any remaining gas found in the well will be used, and there are plans to extract lithium from the brine.
A recently constructed 2,000-square-foot greenhouse built near the community school will be one of the first locations to be heated by the Tu Deh-Kah power plant. The ambition is to grow enough commercial produce to "feed the north," as Behn-Tsakoza put it.
The project recently received $1.2 million from Natural Resources Canada through the Indigenous Natural Resource Partnerships program, which the report says is designed to increase participation of those communities in the clean energy economy.
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There are still hurdles for the project, as using geothermal in sedimentary basins is still relatively unproven on the continent. There was also more gas found in the well than previously thought, which led skeptical local elders to question how environmentally friendly the project really is.
Behn-Tsakoza's response was that "Our vision hasn't changed," and they'll continue to push forward with this sustainable geothermal energy project for the betterment of the community and the environment.
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