Could this be what's in store for parts of Canada with this new technology?
CALGARY, Alberta – Climate change and dare we say Global Warming, have been at the forefront of mainstream media for many years. While oil and gas giants are participating through various programs and efforts, including 6 oilsands giants and their Pathways Alliance initiative, there hasn’t been a courageous, bold, or daring proposal until now.
Calgary-based Glacier Oil Co. (TSX: GLOC) announced this morning that it is moving forward with its Atmospheric Chilling Program (ACP) slated to commence in May of 2023. By any measure the ACP is an amazing feat of dreamwork with equal parts of engineering, hope, and luck mixed in for good measure.
Glacier has designed nearly 100 school bus scale, solar-powered air conditioning units to be run 4-6 months of the year in a predominantly warmer region of Alberta near Drumheller. The units are expected to drop ambient temperature in the immediate region by up to 10° C, and locations as far away as Vancouver could eventually see a change up to 1-2°C, which should be more than sufficient to mitigate the affects of climate change at a regional level.
Of course the elephant in the room is where the exhaust heat from the chiller units are discharged. Not to worry, Glacier Oil began their initial fields producing geothermally heated oil and is subsequently an expert in the field of geothermal operations. The heated exhaust will be pumped down into the Earth with solar powered turbines where the heat will be absorbed by the underlying strata – a process that can be thought of as the reverse of geothermal warming.
Actual photograph of Glacier’s ACP pilot near situated about 5 miles south of Drumheller, Alberta. Note the AC units on the left, solar powered wind turbine and heat exhaust systems.
Once the pilot project has proven itself viable, it will be scaled up to the national level with the federal government pre-approving large Glacial facilities in Toronto and Vancouver. These installations are expected to be 15-20°C projects which could put the ambient temperature of these urban centers into the low single digits throughout the summer months. A welcome change for residents we’re sure!
But not everybody believes that this is a great idea. Durtie Sanchez-Camillo, with the Pembina Cardium Institute believes that this sort of technology can have devastating unintended consequences.
Durtie Sanchez-Camillo, VP of Propaganda, Pembina Cardium Institute
“It’s all fine and good if glacier’s system is working properly. But once the system goes haywire (and we all know it will since it was designed and built by engineers), what’s stopping it from lowering local temps by 300°C instead of the 15-20°C maximum that they claim? Then what? Then we’ll have to change our tune from being against global warming to now being fighting for it, and that will make people think that we don’t know what we’re talking about.” – Durtie Sanchez-Camillo, Pembna Cardium Institute
2P News will keep our dear readers up to date on developments in this story as they become available.
