Go with shared geothermal heating

The Brandon Sun article of Aug. 21, 2026 by Peter Chura of Manitoba Hydro claims the proposed Brandon natural gas plant is the best of available options to ensure reliable, affordable energy for Manitobans in the years ahead.

The plant is required to alleviate peak electricity demand during cold spells. The article omits the option of closed-loop shared geothermal heating to replace the proposed $3-billion natural gas plant. There would be large energy savings from a province-wide conversion to shared geothermal heating from electrical resistance heating.

The savings would be greater than the increase in electrical energy required for a complete transition to geothermal from natural gas heating. The net savings in yearly electrical energy could be used to reduce the peak demand required for cold spells.

Standard building hot water tanks across the province can be engineered to transfer heat into the main geothermal loop during extreme winter cold spells to eliminate any peak energy demand remaining after the large energy savings from a complete geothermal transition.

In the summer, the tanks can absorb excess heat rejected by building air conditioning systems. In winter, low-profile heat-absorbing lines fitted directly inside sewer mains and building and industrial waste heat recovery can add more heat energy to the system.

Non-disruptive, directional drilling would connect the geothermal piping in the sewer mains directly to individual buildings. To prevent the network from overheating, excess heat energy can be directed to greenhouses, aquaculture facilities or safely rejected into local river systems, deep geological wells and cooling towers. This system would maintain a steady geothermal baseline temperature, eliminating the need for antifreeze such as glycol.

The geothermal infrastructure, heat pumps, hot water tanks, and waste heat recovery costs would be amortized over a long period at no capital cost to the province, just as is done with natural gas infrastructure. The cost of shared geothermal would be borne by the public through monthly heating bills that would be less than current rates due to geothermal efficiencies.

There would be no need for a $3-billion capital outlay. The use of existing sewer lines would reduce construction time and the cost of trenching. Large-scale conversion to geothermal could be completed in less time than for a natural gas plant. The 40 kilometres of sewage lines recently completed in less than two years in St. Andrews, Man., proves the feasibility of rapid, large-scale underground pipe installation.

Shared geothermal is a reliable, proven technology. There are many examples of implemented shared geothermal systems, including the Phillips Street Common in Winnipeg, as well as in Framingham, Mass.; Ball State University in Muncie, Ind.; and Princeton University in New Jersey.

The entire distributed geothermal system, unlike a single natural gas plant, could not possibly fail all at once. Any local geothermal failure could be rapidly repaired. Independent hot water tanks and waste heat recovery water systems could provide backup to maintain heating.

In his article, Peter Chura admits to past natural gas plant failure in Brandon. The risk of gas plant failure and uncertainty in gas cost and supply would be eliminated.

Geothermal heat pumps provide an automatic air conditioning option, reducing fatalities and public health expenditures from heat waves that are certain to increase in the future. Choosing to ignore this solution leaves Manitoba Hydro vulnerable to immense public and regulatory liability for avoidable heat-related harm.

The 13 per cent of total provincial greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from natural gas heating would be erased. A shared province-wide geothermal network is a necessity from both a GHG and a liability perspective.

The best of available options to ensure reliable, safe, affordable energy for Manitobans in the years ahead is province-wide shared geothermal heating, not a $3-billion, GHG-producing, less reliable natural gas plant that is destined to be a stranded asset.

» Dennis LeNeveu, M.Sc., worked for 20 years as a scientist at the Whiteshell Research Establishment specializing in safety and risk assessment. He was the professional vault modeller for Canada’s high-level nuclear fuel waste assessment and later developed probabilistic risk models for carbon dioxide sequestration at the Weyburn oil field. He has served as a formal technical expert and an intervenor in major energy hearings, including the Energy East pipeline, the Manitoba-Minnesota Transmission Project (MMTP), and the Vivian Sand Extraction Clean Energy Commission Hearing.