The Geothermal Collaboration Network is a group formed by industry partners with the goal of putting oil and gas workers back to work within the geothermal industry. The Hitch’s article “Putting Rigs Back to Work” describes how this can be done.
According to Dr. Catherine Hickson of Geothermal Canada, Alberta has significant areas where temperatures are high enough to extract heat for direct-use applications and, in some locations, power production. Hickson said direct-use geothermal applications could include space heating, heating a green house, or providing the energy needed for industrial processes. The main difference between an oil well and a geothermal well, is that a geothermal well has a much larger diameter than a typical oil or gas well, said Hickson. The large diameter is required to accommodate the large electrical submersible pumps required to lift the large quantities to hot brine to the surface. A geothermal well is also constructed to last decades.