| Abstract |
British Columbia’s internal demand for power and opportunities for export are increasing the need for new power generation in the province. Moreover, the transition to a low carbon economy stipulates that power supply must be from renewable and low emission sources. Although British Columbia’s supply is dominated by hydro-electricity, both large-scale and run-of-river, geothermal energy systems offer significant benefits for diversification as B.C. hosts Canada’s best geothermal resources along the Coast Mountain Range. This paper presents a series of maps that examine and compare the spatial distribution of B.C.’s geothermal resources, transmission infrastructure, and power markets. Using ArcGIS, these factors have been combined into a map identifying the most favourable regions for geothermal development in the province. Multi-criteria evaluation of 10 evidence layers was completed in a knowledge-driven model. Publicly available data for temperature gradient, heat flow, volcanic centres, geothermometry, hot springs, geology, faults, and earthquake indicators comprise a map that characterizes the Resource Factor. Evidence layers from a Market and Infrastructure Factor map include: distance to transmission, regional pricing, and population density. Evidence layers were assigned weights based on a judgment of their importance to geothermal favourability using the Analytical Hierarchy Process. This new approach to creating a Favourability map builds on the 1992 Geothermal Resources Map of British Columbia by incorporating new data, and applying spatial buffers based on studies from producing geothermal fields from around the world. The research demonstrates the importance of integrating economic and infrastructure factors into the evaluation of a region’s geothermal resources. |