DEEP Earth Energy Unveils Next-Gen Geothermal Plant Near Estevan

Saskatoon-based DEEP Earth Energy Corp. is planning to produce what it terms “emissions-free baseload power” from Canada’s first next-generation geothermal project after announcing a strategic collaboration with SLB, the global oilfield services giant previously known as Schlumberger Ltd.

The first phase of the project near Estevan, Saskatchewan will generate an initial five megawatts of power beginning in 2026 and expand to about 30 MW when construction is complete, DEEP says in a Jan. 29 release. A “staged build” will eventually expand the project to about 180 MW.

“DEEP aims to build Canada’s first geothermal power plant, generating low-emission electricity by tapping into steamy underground reservoirs and pumping fluid to the surface,” the Globe and Mail reported late last month. “It’s one of a handful of companies across the country pursuing geothermal energy, bolstered by government cash injections and a growing global push for net-zero emissions.”

The Globe said the geothermal start-up will rely on SLB’s “decades of experience in subsurface drilling and design” as it works to line up construction financing.

“We are thrilled to welcome SLB as a key partner in this transformative project,” DEEP President and CEO Kirsten Marcia said in the company release. “By joining forces, we are developing our asset in a streamlined fashion, combining the best of subsurface and surface technologies while maximizing efficiencies, operations, and ultimately, power output.”

Marcia said she hopes the project will “establish a blueprint for the development of additional commercial geothermal projects in Canada,” helping to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions while securing local energy resources.

“This collaboration with DEEP reflects our commitment to broadening the adoption of geothermal by reducing project risk and accelerating the time to first power,” said Irlan Amir, SLB’s vice president of renewables and energy efficiency. “The project’s innovative engineering design and integrated asset development model brings together developers, technology providers, and infrastructure partners to open new frontiers for geothermal power generation in Canada and beyond.”

DEEP says SLB will provide engineering design and well construction services for two production and two injection wells in the first phase of the project, and up to 18 wells in the second phase. “The innovative approach will leverage the natural permeability of the sedimentary rock formation and enable the reliable, cost-efficient, and more sustainable production of geothermal energy,” the release states.

Last April, DEEP announced plans to build Canada’s “greenest greenhouse” in partnership with Oppy, a fresh produce grower, marketer, and distributor based in Vancouver, using waste heat from the geothermal operation and taking advantage of Estevan’s location “for optimal distribution access to all four cardinal points.”

In an opinion piece early this year, the Cascade Institute called for Canada to “dig deep” on new technology developments in geothermal.

“In 2024, the prospects for geothermal power were utterly transformed,” wrote Peter Massie, director of Cascade’s Ottawa-based Geothermal Energy Office, and Emily Smejkal, the institute’s geothermal policy lead. “ In 2025, Canada must decide whether to lead or follow in this arena. Recent breakthroughs create a clear opportunity for our country, but other nations are acting fast, and Canada’s window for leadership is closing rapidly.”

For a long time, geothermal was “considered a Goldilocks technology because it required geological conditions that were just right,” Massie and Smejkal explained. Until now, “the need for rare geologic conditions created high upfront risk and limited scalability, so geothermal failed to match the incredible growth of wind and solar.”

But things have changed, with the International Energy Agency projecting late last year that global generating capacity from a “largely untapped underground energy source” could grow from 15 gigawatts today to 800 GW in 2050, given continued technology investments to drive down project costs. Advancements are already benefitting the sector, and costs could plummet 80% by 2035, to around $50 per megawatt-hour as a result. At that price, geothermal would be the cheapest source of dispatchable renewable energy, outperforming hydro and nuclear power and competing with wind and solar.

Those recent breakthroughs “make the vision of generating geothermal power anywhere in the world more realistic than ever,” the two Cascade Institute authors stated. “Innovation is happening at a rate perhaps exceeding that with any other power technology today.”

Massie said conventional geothermal technology is “very mature”, dating back to an installation in Italy that went online in the 1910s. But the DEEP project takes advantage of more recent innovations, he told The Energy Mix, beginning with techniques to improve the porosity of the rocks. DEEP is also using horizontal drilling—the same technique that figures prominently in oil and gas fracking—to boost output.

That kind of activity in the fracking fields of Alberta, British Columbia, and Texas has raised persistent concerns about earthquakes, and Massie said companies must employ best practices to manage the risk. “Whenever you’re drilling, you want to make sure you’re doing it responsibly,” he said, and “there are regulatory systems in place to make sure these are monitored and detected.”

He added that DEEP’s partnership with SLB would take advantage of Canadian patents in different aspects of oilfield management and technology, while creating jobs that will be familiar for people currently working in oilfield services. “When I talk to people in the geothermal industry, it would be no exaggeration to say that 80 or 90% of them are transplants from the oil and gas industry,” and the IEA estimated the 80% of the skills in geothermal jobs “can be directly copied and pasted over from oil and gas.”

Cover photo: DEEP Earth Energy