Why retired scientists may have already discovered today's green energy solutions
The 1970s energy crisis spurred efforts to find energy sources at home
Alan Jessop, 88, flips through papers summarizing the geothermal research he conducted decades ago as a federal government scientist.
Today, he lives in a seniors' residence in Calgary. But from 1976 to 1986, Jessop travelled as far west as Mount Meager, north of Whistler, B.C., and as far east as Springhill, N.S., while surveying Canada for potential sites for geothermal energy production.
At the time, it was conflict in the Middle East, not global warming, that sparked the effort in Canada to find energy at home, including underground sources hot enough to harness for electricity.
"We knew about climate change, but very few people paid any attention," said Jessop.
Now, this research started nearly half a century ago has renewed relevance as governments around the world grapple with human-caused climate change and look for alternatives to fossil fuels, with Russia's war in Ukraine again raising additional questions about energy security.
In the early 2000s, prompted by climate change, Steve Grasby, a senior research scientist with the Geological Survey of Canada, revisited Jessop's work. Jessop and his colleagues had surveyed both the Canadian Cordillera — mountain ranges mostly in B.C. and Yukon, and parts of Alberta and N.W.T. — and sedimentary basins, collecting data on what heat resources could be used to potentially generate electricity.
"In 10 years, they quickly ramped up a really world-renowned research group doing work on geothermal," said Grasby, adding that the program received an equivalent of what would be about $100 million in funding today.
Luckily for him, retired scientists like Jessop had held onto files the federal government had decided not to keep when the research program ended in 1986, as the cost of oil was starting to fall.
"I had a large garage full of boxes of papers and all sorts of stuff," said Jessop.
Grasby, whose work now includes ongoing exploration of geothermal on Mount Meager, started getting a lot of mail from former scientists, including Jessop.
"At some point the word got out and I started just randomly getting big boxes in the mail addressed to me, the people sending me all their old files," he said. "Even now, decades later, this forms the basis of most of what we know."
Conflict abroad ramped up research at home
In 1973, conflict in the Middle East prompted Arab countries to reduce oil production, raising prices and even banning oil exports to some countries. This became known as the first oil shock, which sent the cost of a tank of a gas skyrocketing, and put into question the security of the energy supply in North America.
In 1979, another oil shock occurred in the wake of the Iranian Revolution.
WATCH | From the archives: The oil crisis of the 1970s:
In response, the federal government launched new energy research programs, including into renewable sources.
Geothermal was one of five renewable energy research programs the government invested millions of dollars in, including wind, small hydro projects, solar and biomass. In addition to renewables, there were programs for nuclear fusion and hydrogen research.
The energy crisis of the 1970s also sparked the government to launch the National Energy Program in 1980, which included boosting Canadian oil production, investing in the development of the oil sands and offshore drilling, and the controversial decision to set national prices on oil.
"When you have a supply problem, you have a problem with oil or you have a problem with fossil fuels, the first thing people think about doing [is] well, let's just get more of it," said Peter Love, an energy consultant based in Toronto, who's worked on environmental issues since the 1970s.
WATCH | From the archives: Gas rationing hits the U.S., prompting concerns in Canada:
While that was one strategy the federal government deployed, it also took a different tack with energy efficiency.
"They had a very active conservation program," said Love. "It was a massive program rolled out exceedingly quickly and very effectively."
Love remembers watching a televised address from then-U.S. president Jimmy Carter, calling on Americans to conserve energy.
In Canada, the federal government started rolling out programs like those outlined in the 1983 Consumer Resource Guide, promoting the idea of using less energy at home. This included the Canadian Home Insulation Program, the Canadian Oil Substitution Program — which supported homeowners with the transition away from furnace oil, and promoted energy efficiency — and the Solar Domestic Hot Water Program, water heating systems that are still available today.
Funding stopped when prices dropped
When the cost of oil dropped in the early 1980s, the funding for homeowners dried up, but that wasn't the end for efficiency.
"[The Office of Energy Efficiency] played a major role, when [it] couldn't spend money on programs, to provide improvements to our building codes so that houses and commercial buildings, when they got built, were built more efficiently," said Love.
Throughout the energy crisis, the private sector was also investing in research into alternative energy supplies.
Louis Druehl, now a professor emeritus at Simon Fraser University, was setting up a research program in Bamfield, a remote community on Vancouver Island, when General Electric and the American Gas Institute approached him in 1980. They offered him funding to research the feasibility of turning kelp into gas.
"There was a frantic attitude to do something to counter these ridiculous oil prices," said Druehl. "They poured money into projects like ours … but then all of a sudden, the price of oil went down and they stopped."
As quickly as the funding appeared, it ended, and Druehl published his last report in 1983. It would be years later before he and others would learn more about the carbon-capturing benefits of kelp.
In 1986, the federal government told Jessop and his colleagues to stop, and suspended their research. Jessop says he offered to summarize the group's findings in a report, but there was no interest at the time. It would be two decades before Grasby would approach him with renewed interest.
Two years later, in 1988, a NASA scientist named James Hansen would warn a U.S. senate committee about the link between burning fossil fuels and the warming planet. By then, the frenzy of research into renewable energy prompted by the oil crisis had ended.
A new crisis
As the world grapples with climate change, Grasby is turning to drilling technology borrowed from the gas industry, giving the potential Jessop and his colleagues saw in Mount Meager renewed possibility.
"These are things that can all be applied now to geothermal, to be transferred to renewable energy. So it's an exciting time to see that sort of technology transfer," said Grasby.
With Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine making governments question the security of fossil fuels, for Love, it's a good time for Canada to look back on the energy crisis of the 1970s to early 1980s for lessons.
When both the federal government and the private sector "decide to do something, you really can do a lot," he said.
The U.S. wants to address these concerns domestically, by releasing oil from its reserves. In May, Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson told a U.S. senate energy committee that Canadian oil can be an interim solution to security concerns.
"In this context, recent decisions by the United States and Canada to expand hydrocarbon exports to our European friends to displace Russian oil and gas for the short term are entirely appropriate," said Wilkinson.
He added that in the medium and long term, other solutions, including renewables and clean technology, are essential to both climate and energy security.
Still, Alan Jessop hopes the twin threats of Russia's war in Ukraine and the climate crisis will encourage more immediate action.
"I look now and I see the price of gasoline at the pumps, I say, 'Oh, good. Perhaps it'll stop people using this stuff,'" said Jessop.
Written and produced by Molly Segal.