Bringing countries toward energy independence by using the heat beneath our feet is the goal of Eavor Technologies Inc., a Calgary-based geothermal company catching the attention of the cleantech industry.

Ranked in the Global Cleantech Top 100 list for 2022 and 2023, Eavor has developed a technology that digs deep underground to access temperatures that reach as high as 450 C to generate heat and electricity.

Eavor was first founded to clean up the inactive oil and gas wells in Alberta. As the company moved away from orphan well remediation, it maintained an interest in geothermal energy generation, retrofitting the fossil fuel sites into a clean energy source.

After piloting a prototype system in Alberta near Rocky Mountain House, a town west of Red Deer, Eavor is now developing its first commercial project in Germany.

Though it may seem unusual for a Canadian company to prioritize the European market, Paul Cairns, the chief business development officer and co-founder of Eavor, said it is a highly favourable area and a step toward helping countries have greater energy self-reliance.

“It is a demonstration for the rest of Europe that you can have clean energy independence right beneath your feet.”

Geothermal that accesses the ‘whole of a haystack’

Eavor’s team developed a technology named Eavor-Loop that drills wells up to five kilometres deep, then laterally branch out to as much as 12 kilometres in length. Once at the target depth, the pipes are pinched off to form a loop. Eavor then injects water and seals the system, creating a loop resembling a car radiator, Cairns described.

The hot water heats another closed loop on the surface that circulates a glycol-based fluid. The fluid will rapidly transform to a gas, moving a turbine to generate carbon-free electricity. Additionally, the heat can be harvested for uses in greenhouses or district heating and cooling.

Electricity production will depend on the location, Cairns said. One Eavor-Loop can generate two to 20 megawatts (MW). Five to 12 MW is the sweet spot, with 20 MW as an extreme, unlikely case, he explained.

The advantage of a conduction-based system like Eavor-Loop is that it does not require access to hot aquifers, Eavor states on its website. Discovering aquifers can be like finding a needle in a haystack, Cairns said. Eavor can bypass that problem as it exploits hot rock which is highly accessible. “We are working in the whole of a haystack."

Starting as a project developer, Eavor plans to build up gradually, according to Cairns.

“To demonstrate the market opportunity to the really large incumbent infrastructure forces out there in the world for them to say, ‘Hey, this is a safe, reasonable place for us to come in and do our jobs.’”

The goal is to then transition into a technology company, licensing out and supporting its technology.

Eavor is developing its first commercial project in Geretsried, a town in southern Germany. The company caught the attention of the German government, enough to garner a site visit from Chancellor Olaf Scholz, as Germany seeks to decouple itself from natural gas.

Eavor in Germany, and possibly beyond

Eavor saw opportunity in Germany because of the spike in energy costs from restrictions on Russian natural gas imports, Cairns said. The fossil fuel is a critical resource for Germany, which relies on natural gas for over a quarter of its energy supply to heat homes, generate electricity and power factories.

Facing the energy supply shortage, Germany has sought to add more alternative sources such as renewables and hydrogen to bolster energy independence and meet its climate goal. The federal legislature approved a law to expedite geothermal energy projects earlier this year, indicating interest in Eavor’s industry.

“This was a great learning ground to get the best economics we could early, but also the best demonstration for our early marketplace,” Cairns said.

Using two of the largest drilling rigs in continental Europe, Eavor will build four of its systems to support a local power plant, supplying eight MW of electricity and 64 MW of thermal energy. The clean power will offset approximately 44,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. Up to a quarter of the town’s electricity needs and all the baseload heating could be met with Eavor-Loop, Cairns said.

It attracted a significant amount of funding in 2023: hundreds of millions of dollars in investment and grant money from Canadian, American, European and Japanese sources.

Eavor expects to generate power on the first system by the middle of 2025, and to have all four sites finished in two to three years.

Once Eavor can cut down the learning curve, it can “step into an electrical market anywhere in the world” such as Poland, Morocco or Japan, Cairns said.

Eavor is in talks with the Singaporean government, Cairns disclosed, with energy independence as a priority. Almost entirely dependent on imported natural gas for electricity, the company believes it can deliver 10 gigawatts of power to Singapore, helping to wean the city-state from fossil fuels.

Eavor is also looking at home for opportunities.

“We have a project in our pipeline in Canada already, several of them,” Cairns said, which will be in the five- to 10-year horizon.