Alberta
Calgary geothermal tech leader Eavor awarded $130 million CND grant from EU to help European energy security
News Release from Eavor Technologies Inc.
Eavor’s next-generation geothermal project awarded €91,6 million grant from the European Innovation Fund
Eavor Technologies Inc. and Eavor Erdwärme Geretsried GmbH (together “Eavor”), the leader in globally scalable geothermal closed-loop technology, has been awarded a €91,6 million grant from the European Innovation Fund (“EIF”), in support of the Eavor-Europe™ geothermal project already under construction in Bavaria south of Munich near the town of Geretsried, Germany.
The project is the world’s first commercial implementation of an Eavor-Loop™, a showpiece of the zero-emissions heat and power production capabilities of next-generation geothermal technology, and a flagship site for the fundamental ability of Eavor-Loop™ to provide energy security and autonomy, globally.
Construction began in October 2022, with drilling scheduled to commence in July 2023. Two of Europe’s largest drilling rigs are already under a four-year contract with KCA-Deutag. An Organic Rankine Cycle (“ORC”) power plant is being designed and constructed simultaneously with drilling operations in collaboration with Turboden S.p.A., with the first energy production scheduled for Q4, 2024.
John Redfern, President, CEO and Co-Founder at Eavor Technologies Inc., stated: “I’d like to thank the European Commission. We at Eavor are humbled to be included in the EIF program alongside so many prestigious European multinationals. We believe this first commercial Eavor-Loop™ will open the floodgates to the broad implementation of what is the first truly scalable form of green baseload energy. In this way, we hope to help Europe solve its twin existential threats of Climate Change and lack of Energy Autonomy”.
The project will result in 8,2 MWe and ~44.000 tCO2e GHG emissions avoided per year including anticipated heat offtake and power sales. Eavor estimates that ~20.000 homes will be powered with clean energy harnessed from the Earth and up to 600 person-years of drilling services and powerplant/infrastructure jobs will be created during the construction phase of the project.
Philippe Dumas, Secretary General at the European Geothermal Energy Council, stated: “I’m glad to see the EC Innovation Fund supporting the geothermal project submitted by Eavor GmbH to commercially demonstrate innovative renewable district heating and power supply in Geretsried, Germany. Given the energy, climate and food security crisis as well as the need to meet the tripling of the geothermal target by 2030, this innovative project is of paramount importance: it will increase the security of electricity supply, help decarbonise the district heating sector, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and stimulate technological innovation all of which could also be replicated elsewhere.”
Daniel Mölk, President at Eavor GmbH, stated: “Eavor would like to thank regional stakeholders, the Bavarian/German Governments, the community, and operational partners generally. Eavor, and its project partners, Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc. and Enex Power Germany GmbH, are honoured to be so welcomed and supported by all.”
Project Summary
The Eavor-Loop™ at Geretsried, Germany will provide clean baseload energy for district heating and/or power generation. It consists of multiple large underground radiators buried at 4,500 metres. Operating under a natural thermosiphon requiring no pump and no aquifer, clean fresh water will circulate through the radiator carrying the heat to surface.
With practically no greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions during operation, Eavor Loop will avoid almost 100% of the emissions compared to the reference scenario. Eavor Loop is also an environmentally friendly solution: it can be installed virtually anywhere providing the EU with a scalable, secure source of renewable heat and power. An on-site visitor centre will be built and open to the public interested to know more about the technology and the operations of this first-of-kind implementation. – Eavor-Europe™ Webpage
About the European Innovation Fund (EUIF):
With projected revenue of more than €38 billion by 2030 from the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), the Innovation Fund aims to create the right financial incentives for companies and public authorities to invest in the next generation of low-carbon technologies and give EU companies a first-mover advantage to become global technology leaders. The EUIF focuses on highly innovative technologies and big flagship projects within Europe. The European Commission is tasked with overall management and implementation of the fund and has designed the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) as the implementing body of the fund.
The first call for large-scale projects awarded grants of €1.1 billion to 7 projects in energy-intensive industries, hydrogen, carbon capture, use and storage, and renewable energy.
The projects selected under the €1.8 billion second call for large-scale projects were evaluated by independent experts based on their ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared to traditional technologies and to innovate beyond the state-of-the-art, while being sufficiently mature for deployment. Other selection criteria included the projects’ potential for scalability and cost effectiveness. – Innovation Fund
Reference material: Innovation Fund projects (europa.eu)
About Eavor Technologies Inc.
Eavor (pronounced “Ever”) is a technology-based energy company led by a team dedicated to creating a clean, reliable, and affordable energy future on a global scale. Eavor’s solution (Eavor-Loop™) represents the world’s first truly scalable form of clean, dispatchable, and flexible power. Eavor achieves this by mitigating or eliminating many of the issues that have traditionally hindered geothermal energy. Eavor instead circulates a benign working fluid that is completely isolated from the environment in a closed-loop, through a massive subsurface radiator. This radiator simply collects heat from the natural geothermal gradient of the Earth via conduction. [email protected] | Eavor.com
About KCA Deutag:
With over 130 years of experience, KCA Deutag is a leading drilling, engineering and technology company working onshore and offshore with a focus on safety, quality and operational performance. We operate approximately 81 drilling rigs in 14 countries, either directly or through our affiliates, employing people in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, the Caspian Sea and Canada. KCA Deutag consists of our business units: Land, Offshore and Kenera. Land and Offshore are our operational divisions delivering safe, effective, trouble-free operations across 20 countries. Kenera brings together our design and engineering specialists RDS and land rig and oilfield manufacturer Bentec under one business unit. Kenera was established to expand our offering in both hydrocarbons and energy transition markets, with three dedicated segments covering innovative services, technology and engineering, and manufacturing. For further information on KCA Deutag please visit kcadeutag.com
About Turboden:
Turboden S.p.A., Mitsubishi Heavy Industries froup company, is an Italian firm and a global leader in the design, manufacture, and maintenance of Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) systems, highly suitable for distributed generation, that generate electric and thermal power exploiting multiple sources, such as renewables (biomass and geothermal energy), traditional fuels, and waste heat from industrial processes, waste incinerators, engines, or gas turbines. Today Turboden expands its technological solutions with gas expanders and large heat pumps to play a broader role in the decarbonisation of the district heating sector and of energy-intensive industrial processes. turboden.com
Alberta
Alberta introduces bill banning sex reassignment surgery on minors
From LifeSiteNews
Alberta Conservative Premier Danielle Smith followed through on a promised bill banning so-called ‘top and bottom’ surgeries for minors.
Alberta Conservative Premier Danielle Smith made good on her promise to protect kids from extreme transgender ideology after introducing a bill banning so-called “top and bottom” surgeries for minors.
“It is so important that all youth can enter adulthood equipped to make adult decisions. In order to do that, we need to preserve their ability to make those decisions, and that’s what we’re doing,” Smith said in a press release.
“The changes we’re introducing are founded on compassion and science, both of which are vital for the development of youth throughout a time that can be difficult and confusing.”
Bill 26, the Health Statutes Amendment Act, 2024 “reflects the government’s commitment to build a health care system that responds to the changing needs of Albertans,” the government says.
The bill will amend the Health Act to “prohibit regulated health professionals from performing sex reassignment surgeries on minors.”
It will also ban the “use of puberty blockers and hormone therapies for the treatment of gender dysphoria or gender incongruence” to kids 15 and under “except for those who have already commenced treatment and would allow for minors aged 16 and 17 to choose to commence puberty blockers and hormone therapies for gender reassignment and affirmation purposes with parental, physician and psychologist approval.”
Alberta Minister of Health Adriana LaGrange, the bill’s sponsor, said the province’s legislative priorities include “implementing policy changes to continue our refocusing work, position our health care system to respond to pressures and public health emergencies, and to preserve choice for minors. These amendments reflect our dedication to ensuring our health care system meets the needs of every Albertan.”
Earlier this year, the United Conservative Party (UCP) provincial government under Smith announced she would introduce the strong pro-family legislation that strengthens parental rights, protecting kids from life-altering, so-called “top and bottom” surgeries as well as other extreme forms of transgender ideology.
With Smith’s UCP holding a majority in the provincial legislature, the passage of Bill 26 is almost certain.
About the proposed law, Smith said that her government believes it is “vitally important to preserve the time” kids have as a “youth.” She added that she believes this is so kids can “gain sufficient amount of knowledge, experience, and perspective so that you can fully understand who you are, who you want to be and what opportunities you may want to have as an adult before making permanent life-altering decisions related to your body.”
While Smith has done far more than predecessor Jason Kenney to satisfy social conservatives, she has been mostly soft on social issues such as abortion and has publicly expressed pro-LGBT views, telling Jordan Peterson that conservatives must embrace homosexual “couples” as “nuclear families.”
This weekend, thousands of UCP members will gather for the party’s annual general meeting, where Smith’s leadership will be voted on along with many other pro-freedom and family policy proposals from members. Smith is expected to pass her leadership review vote with a large majority.
Alberta
Alberta court upholds conviction of Pastor Artur Pawlowski for preaching at Freedom Convoy protest
From LifeSiteNews
Lawyers argued that Pastor Artur Pawlowski’s sermon was intended to encourage protesters to find a peaceful solution to the blockade, but the statement was characterized as a call for mischief.
An Alberta Court of Appeal ruled that Calgary Pastor Artur Pawlowski is guilty of mischief for his sermon at the Freedom Convoy-related border protest blockade in February 2022 in Coutts, Alberta.
On October 29, Alberta Court of Appeal Justice Gordon Krinke sentenced the pro-freedom pastor to 60 days in jail for “counselling mischief” by encouraging protesters to continue blocking Highway 4 to protest COVID mandates.
“A reasonable person would understand the appellant’s speech to be an active inducement of the illegal activity that was ongoing and that the appellant intended for his speech to be so understood,” the decision reads.
Pawlowski addressed a group of truckers and protesters blocking entrance into the U.S. state of Montana on February 3, the fifth day of the Freedom Convoy-styled protest. He encouraged the protesters to “hold the line” after they had reportedly made a deal with Royal Canadian Mounted Police to leave the border crossing and travel to Edmonton.
“The eyes of the world are fixed right here on you guys. You are the heroes,” Pawlowski said. “Don’t you dare go breaking the line.”
After Pawlowski’s sermon, the protesters remained at the border crossing for two additional weeks. While his lawyers argued that his speech was made to encourage protesters to find a peaceful solution to the blockade, the statement is being characterized as a call for mischief.
Days later, on February 8, Pawlowski was arrested – for the fifth time – by an undercover SWAT team just before he was slated to speak again to the Coutts protesters.
He was subsequently jailed for nearly three months for what he said was for speaking out against COVID mandates, the subject of all the Freedom Convoy-related protests.
In Krinke’s decision, he argued that Pawlowski’s sermon incited the continuation of the protest, saying, “The Charter does not provide justification to anybody who incites a third party to commit such crimes.”
However, defence lawyer Sarah Miller pointed out that that Pawlowski’s sermon was protected under freedom of speech, an argument that Krinke quickly dismissed.
“While the appellant is correct that peaceful, lawful and nonviolent communication is entitled to protection, blockading a highway is an inherently aggressive and potentially violent form of conduct, designed to intimidate and impede the movement of third parties,” he wrote.
Pawlowski was released after the verdict. He has already spent 78 days in jail before the trial.
Pawlowski is the first Albertan to be charged for violating the province’s Critical Infrastructure Defence Act (CIDA), which was put in place in 2020 under then-Premier Jason Kenney.
The CIDA, however, was not put in place due to COVID mandates but rather after anti-pipeline protesters blockaded key infrastructure points such as railway lines in Alberta a few years ago.
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