All geothermal projects in Canada will require a direct heat off-take to be viable. In fact the revenue from direct heat use will generally be more than electricity sales. The 5MW plant in Alberta I referenced was built around a proposed industrial park, with the idea being to create a district heat system that upgraded the heat in some facilities and donated it at other facilities.
The best use of heat is as heat, without converting it. The problem is that heat doesn't travel very well, 5-8 km is really the practical limit before insulation costs swamp revenues. And a lot of industrial heat is too far away from a viable user of that heat. If the facility can use the heat internally their process engineers have already incorporated that (through pinch analysis etc).
We have one project now where we're replacing a heat exchanger that is supplying process heat from the exhaust with a power plant, but then using the waste heat from the power plant (still 80% of it left!) to replace the process heat. Overall efficiency will be around 60%.
The best use of heat is as heat, without converting it. The problem is that heat doesn't travel very well, 5-8 km is really the practical limit before insulation costs swamp revenues. And a lot of industrial heat is too far away from a viable user of that heat. If the facility can use the heat internally their process engineers have already incorporated that (through pinch analysis etc).
We have one project now where we're replacing a heat exchanger that is supplying process heat from the exhaust with a power plant, but then using the waste heat from the power plant (still 80% of it left!) to replace the process heat. Overall efficiency will be around 60%.