For many years, the energy provided from the water that flooded Springhill’s former coal mines have garnered international attention. Its potential recently attracted students from Dalhousie University’s Earth and Environmental Sciences program.
Grant Wach, a professor at Dalhousie, brought a group of students from the program to the Dr. Carson & Marion Murray Community Centre and the Surrette Battery Company Limited to learn more about the community’s rich geothermal energy source and its amazing potential as a cost-effective source of green energy.
“What we try to demonstrate to students is show the energy opportunities that are undergoing a transition and renewables is a big part of that,” said Wach, who is on the executive of Geothermal Canada and is the Atlantic director. “Geothermal, in my mind, is the best renewable energy source we can have. It has a very low footprint and the opportunities to do what is happening in Springhill is really unique.”
Fred Chapman with the Dr. Carson & Marion Murray Community Centre talks to students with Dalhousie University’s Earth and Environmental Sciences program about how the arena uses geothermal energy. Darrell Cole – Municipality of Cumberland photo
Geothermal energy is generated by extracting heat from underground sources. In Nova Scotia, abandoned mines that are at least 1,000 metres deep have warm water that can be used to heat homes and other buildings. Cumberland County is already successfully using geothermal technology in shallow depths at sites that have potential at deeper levels.
Wach said the heat that’s produced from the water in the former mine workings underneath the community is a source of energy larger centres like Toronto don’t have. He said it’s a user-friendly attractive opportunity for Nova Scotia and something other former mining communities, like Stellarton and Glace Bay, can take advantage of.
“It has low pollutants and the lowest CO2 footprint of any energy source we can think of,” Wach said. “It’s something we have to keep pushing. It’s amazing the amount of interest there is in renewables. I really see a shift in the world.”
While modelling shows the world will still be using 20 to 50 million barrels of oil a day in 2050, the need to shift to alternative greener energy sources is something that’s coming and along with geothermal potential in communities like Springhill there’s also the promise of geo-storage of the energy generated from wind, solar or tidal power.
Springhill, he said, is ideally situated to take advantage of this with its location close to the Trans-Canada Highway and Nova Scotia Power’s infrastructure as well as wind turbines near Amherst and in other locations, the solar farm in Amherst and the potential of tidal power in the Minas Passage off Parrsboro.
The Municipality of Cumberland is participating with the Nova Scotia Community College in an $80,000 study by the province’s Natural Resources and Renewables Department to determine how to make full use of the area’s geothermal resources.
Mayor Murray Scott was pleased to welcome the Dalhouse University students to Springhill because they will share the news of what’s happening there as they enter their professional careers.
“The municipality has been trying to showcase Springhill’s geothermal resource for decades and for Prof. Wach to bring his students here will only further that. It’s a real opportunity for us to showcase it and hopefully the students will take that into their careers,” Scott said. “It’s an opportunity for us to take advantage of the exposure.”
The mayor said Springhill’s former mines and the energy potential have an enormous upside for the community. It has already been shown as a cost-effective and energy efficient source of power and with available technologies there’s great potential for the community.
Municipality of Cumberland Mayor Murray Scott speaks to students with Dalhousie University’s Earth and Environmental Sciences program about the geothermal potential of Springhill during a recent visit by students to the Dr. Carson & Marion Murray Community Centre. Darrell Cole – Municipality of Cumberland photo
“We’re in a world now that everyone’s looking at what’s out there for renewable energy,” the mayor said. “It’s cheap energy, it’s clean energy, it’s there and we have it. There’s a real interest in going deeper under Springhill. It’s just getting attention to it and making it happen.”