Project
Advanced geothermal systems for the provision of electricity and heat in northern Canada
Founder Institution
Natural Resources Canada
This project develops and applies a unified, site-specific assessment framework to evaluate Advanced Geothermal Systems (AGS) as reliable sources of electricity and heat for three northern Canadian communities over a 50-year lifetime
Building on validated thermo-hydraulic (TH) models and surrogate-assisted optimization, the study will:
Design technically feasible AGS configurations tailored to local geology and community energy demand.
Perform 50-year transient simulations to quantify outlet temperature, thermal power, cumulative heat production, and reservoir sustainability.
Compare alternative loop architectures (e.g., multilateral closed-loop systems) under realistic drilling and operational constraints.
Integrate performance modelling with order-of-magnitude drilling and completion cost estimates.
The outcome will be a set of optimized, cost-informed AGS designs and decision-ready technical reports to support NRCan in assessing geothermal energy as a pathway for long-term diesel reduction and low-carbon baseload supply in northern Canada.
More Details
The deliverables of this project will include: (a) a background information report on Advanced Geothermal Systems in northern applications (draft and final); (b) a comprehensive AGS design and thermo-hydraulic modelling methodology report (draft and final), and (c) for each of the three selected northern sites, a set of AGS designs and simulation results that meet NRCan’s specified thermal energy requirements, and (d) an integrated AGS modelling report synthesizing performance and design recommendations across all three sites (draft and final), as well as (e) a dedicated costing report that details rig types, drilling and completion durations, and mobilization/demobilization cost estimates for the evaluated AGS configurations (draft and final).