Can geothermal energy help power the Fraser Canyon?

The Boston Bar First Nation is hoping geothermal technology will keep the lights on in the Fraser Canyon.

The band recently proposed a feasibility study to build a geothermal power plant and green hydrogen project on a roughly 10-acre site on a reserve next to North Bend. The property was once a saw mill.

It hopes the seven-megawatt plant won’t just produce electricity from Spences Bridge to Spuzzum—a corridor highly susceptible to outages—but rejuvenate the local economy by also extracting hydrogen for export.

The geothermal power plant would not replace BC Hydro as the region’s primary energy source. Instead, it would provide backup electricity and give the nation more control of its energy production.

BC Hydro’s power lines in the Fraser Canyon are often severed by rockslides, snowslides, and other natural disasters. The outages can sometimes last for more than 24 hours. The Fraser Canyon corridor has had at least three outages since January 2024, two of which were caused by weather.

For decades, the Boston Bar First Nation relied on a small hydroelectric facility on Scuzzy Creek for backup power. However, the plant was destroyed by flooding in 2023, forcing the community to rely on diesel generators and stoves—which have negative impacts on the environment—during BC Hydro outages.

Eventually, the First Nation hopes it can be more than a backup power source.

The plant could kickstart economic activity in an area that has seen more businesses close than open in recent decades and be scaled up to produce not only more power, but also hydrogen.

“It would create power in the region for industry,” said Theo Warkentin, CEO of the Boston Bar First Nation’s economic development corporation.

Currently, BC Hydro doesn’t have the lines to bring significant power to the region. If the nation’s geothermal and green hydrogen facility comes to be, the local power could fuel energy-intensive sectors like data farms and light manufacturing.

“If you want the data farm in, you wouldn’t have to bring the power to the data farm, the power would be at the data farm,” Warkentin said.

The First Nation says the new plant would be located on its Kopchitchin 2 reserve on the west side of the Fraser, next to North Bend. They hope it to reduce about 15,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per year. It could also produce 40 full-time jobs and nearly 1,700 tonnes of green hydrogen, a compound that is produced using renewable sources like wind or solar.

The plant could also be scaled up to 100 megawatts and reduce 224,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide. A bigger plant could produce over 24,000 tonnes of “green” hydrogen.

Hydrogen itself doesn’t produce any greenhouse gas emissions, but the manufacturing process often includes methane and other pollutants. Green hydrogen production can result in as little as one kilogram of carbon dioxide or less.

At the proposed Boston Bar plant, a three-kilometre-long hole would be drilled into the earth to bring heat to the surface. The heat would then be converted into electricity, which could be used to make hydrogen.

The facility would use graphene to transfer heat quickly, and technology that recycles the fluid that heats up the ground, so it doesn’t contaminate the environment.

Canada is already one of the highest producers of hydrogen in the world. The country makes about four million tonnes of hydrogen per year, which accounts for 5% of the entire global production.

Canada’s plans to export hydrogen to Europe have been stalled recently. But the demand for hydrogen suggests that the band’s project may not be a fantasy. The nation says the hydrogen could be sold to the U.S., Asia, and Europe, bringing in up to $250 million per year.

The proposal was recently endorsed by the Fraser Valley Regional District (FVRD).

The nation needed the FVRD’s support to apply for funding from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and conduct a feasibility study. The feasibility study would help the nation understand how efficient the graphene will recycle heat.

“That’s the only real question we have,” Warkentin said. “We know where the heat is, because geology tells you where the heat is. And on the surface, we have units that can make hydrogen.”

A review of the Boston Bar First Nation’s feasibility study application could take up to five months.