In a recent interview with the Globe and Mail, Eavor CEO John Redfern delves into the company’s patented technology and how it has been instrumental in achieving commercial success in a new age of geothermal exploration.
The article describes how Eavor’s head office tells a unique story through the many patents on its walls, where each plaque signifies a trailblazing insight. Unlike wind and solar, Redfern explained that there was a stagnation of innovative breakthroughs for geothermal energy over the last several decades, and this held geothermal back from scaling globally.
Redfern described this circumstance as a “vast open whitespace” for Eavor as the company’s inception began.
“Every time we asked a question and got a solution, it would turn out to be a non-patented solution. So we patented it,” said Redfern in the interview.
These inventions lead to the creation of the Eavor-Loop™, which is a closed-loop system that circulates a working fluid to extract heat from hot rock via conduction. This means that rather than relying on the location of permeable aquifers, heat in the subsurface can be harnessed almost anywhere on the planet, and can provide reliable energy on a scale that rivals fossil fuels.
The article emphasized how this demonstrates the rarity of Eavor’s position. The company’s increase in funding and project deployment is anticipated to happen alongside a greater worldwide demand for geothermal energy. According to the International Energy Agency renewable report 2023, a combination of market interest and government policy will be the catalyst to this increased demand.
Moreover, Canada stands in a promising position to be a global leader in geothermal development due to the country’s extensive and historically-embedded oil and gas expertise.
“This is our shot. If we move now, Canada can be a world-leader in geothermal energy,” said Redfern.
The next milestone is for the Geretsried project to provide power to the local grid within the rough time frame and budget it has promised. At that point, Redfern stated that Eavor will be “golden” to expand technological research and implement wide scale deployment of Eavor-Loop™ technology to its pipeline of global projects.
