INNOVATION March-April 2019

F E A T U R E

British Columbia possesses great, untapped geothermal resources, but they are generally considered too expensive to access. The Clarke Lake Gas Field near Fort Nelson, however, presents an opportunity to use data from depleted oil and gas wells to develop a new source of heat and electricity, as well as new jobs and greater food security, for a community that sorely needs them.

ROBIN J. MILLER

W ith many young volcanoes, British Columbia forms part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, the remarkable string of more than 400 volcanoes running some 40,000 kilometres around the edges of the Pacific Ocean, from the southern

tip of South America, across the Bering Strait, and all the way down to New Zealand. Roughly 90 percent of all earthquakes occur along this horseshoe, and we are no doubt at risk of a major tremblor here. But we are also sitting on an extraordinary opportunity.

2 6 M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 1 9

I N N O V A T I O N