Okay, fantastic. Then it's all for my privilege and for the other witnesses.
Good evening, everyone.
Thank you very much for having us. I'd like to acknowledge that we're on the traditional territory of the Algonquin and Iroquois first nations. I equally bring you greetings from Kitselas First Nation, who will be mentioned later in this presentation, as they are developing a geothermal project.
We represent CanGEA, the Canadian Geothermal Energy Association. I'm the chair of the association. I'm also a member of CanGEA, and I work with two companies that are also mentioned later in the presentation.
Cutting right to the chase, on slide number two, Bill C-63 and geothermal energy, thank you to this committee. Because of this committee and the March budget, geothermal heat is now considered an eligible renewable energy. Up until March 22, geothermal electricity was renewable, but geothermal heat was not. This kind of inequity in how geothermal was treated was holding the industry back. We want to reach out to you personally this evening and say thank you. We are now eligible for the Canadian renewable and conservation expenses, as well as the accelerated capital cost adjustment.
On the next slide are our five members. I want to bring to everyone's attention the fact that because of your work, what you did as a committee, and because of the budget that was tabled, we now have five heat and power projects going forward. The ones I'm highlighting tonight are from western Canada, starting with Borealis GeoPower out of Valemount. They're making a power and a heat project. Then we have the Kitselas First Nation leading a project out of Terrace, B.C., and that's also for heat and for power. DEEP, out of Saskatchewan, is also heat and power. Up until March, these companies would have been ineligible to claim the heat part.
What Bill C-63 will also unlock—in the bottom—is that we have two Alberta companies who are also developing heat only projects and, again, up until recently, they wouldn't have been considered renewable.
All of these companies are using clean tech, but they're also using technology transfer from the oil and gas industry and repurposing talent from the oil and gas industry.
What's further interesting to note is that in Yukon, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Quebec, projects are also progressing. I hope that the next time I have an opportunity to appear here, I can report on those areas as well. I would especially note that Nunavut right now is running an RFP for a feasibility study to use heat in the Nunavut territory. That RFP closes on November 15. They have been absolutely inspired that geothermal heat can now be classified as renewable, and hopefully used abundantly in that territory to decrease our fossil fuel reliance.
I could stop the presentation here, but since I have five minutes, I'd like to go on. I want to bring to your attention that there are further improvements that our industry requires. I'm hoping that the committee is able to make these amendments as well.
Most notably, other renewable energies currently achieve both test turbine status and transmission expenses, so there is parity that is not yet being achieved by geothermal. When people ask why the industry isn't progressing, people start to make up reasons why. However, they're really economic, and it's because other industries are provided with incentives or are eligible for programs that geothermal is not.
I want to bring a consequence, a real life example, of that home. I'm now on the slide talking about geothermal test turbines. The wind industry has been granted test turbine status for up to 20% of its projects. Here we have a project in Valemount, B.C., that's going to be a demonstration, not just demonstrating and testing of a reservoir, but also demonstrating the capabilities of the geothermal industry.
This small project, again just as a test facility, is looking to employ 50 to 80 people. If this sounds incredible, a few slides later I talk about how it's not in fact incredible. If you look at countries like Iceland, New Zealand, and the U.S.A., they routinely achieve huge employment numbers based on deploying geothermal heat along with power.
The Iceland example I bring for you this evening shows that at a mere 175 megawatt plant, they're able to employ 60 people, but also an additional 840 people in other businesses that are using their heat. This is all off of two power plants that are commingled and have the heat part.
Going back to Sustainaville, it is pitching to get test turbine status so it too can have a test facility and demonstrate geothermal power and heat, but as well create 50 to 80 jobs. We're not making that up.
I'll end by talking about another item that we did not get. Wind, solar, and even tidal and hydro power all get transmission expenses. Our industry too would like to have transmission expenses. Here's a real world example from Valemount, where British Columbia power, BC Hydro, is serving the town. It's a 300-kilometre transmission line. Unfortunately, it stops short of the village.
There's a new load developing as an ecotourism resort. Because BC Hydro cannot serve the ecotourism resort, the province has approved a seven megawatt diesel power plant to be installed. Here we are, in the era of a pan-Canadian framework for clean growth and climate change, trying to shut down diesel and switch away from fossil fuels, and here's an example of a brand new diesel power plant that could go into operation. Standing between that spewing out of up to 50,000 tonnes of CO2 a year, or about 1.5 megatonnes over 30 years, is a 26-kilometre transmission line. If I were tidal, wind, solar, or hydro, geothermal wouldn't have to ask for this amendment.
I want to close by saying, in the United States they're targeting an additional 30,000 megawatts to build. They currently have about 3,500 megawatts on line, and 1,200 megawatts in development. Just to frame that, 1,200 megawatts is about a $4.5 billion contribution to GDP. We could have this too. We have the technology and the talent. We just don't have parity with the other types of energy.
Thank you.