As different types of geothermal projects continue to develop in Canada, let’s look back on Eavor’s closed-loop technology with an interview from Eavor CEO, John Redfern.
In February, 2020, Eavor developed their pilot project, Eavor-Lite™, near Rocky Mountain House, AB and now have plans to construct Eavor-Loop™ heat and power projects in Germany with Enex Power Germany GmbH.
May 19, 2020: HeatBeat interviewed John Redfern, President and CEO of Eavor. Here is a brief excerpt from the interview:
Traditional geothermal players who have reviewed our thermodynamic models and field validation eventually come around, but it often takes them time to overcome deeply held convictions and entrenched gut reactions vis-à-vis the feasibility of conduction-only systems like closed-loop. From what I can see as an outsider, there is also a significant bias against closed-loop coming from an entrenched ecosystem, which has incurred significant sunk costs in EGS over the years. I’ll note that we do not typically encounter this same disbelief when speaking to the oil and gas industry, and I don’t find that surprising. There is a large experience gap between the geothermal and oil and gas industries, and an entirely different view of risk. The oil and gas folks, by and large, agree that the concept of closed-loop is sound, achievable, and interesting. Their main concern is cost reduction for well development.