Geo-Thermal Power

The earth's core has temperatures of several thousand degrees Celcius. That intense heat continuously flows outward, warming the rock and water near the earth’s surface. Some of this hot geothermal water travels back up through faults and cracks and reaches the earth's surface as hot springs or geysers, but most of it stays deep underground, trapped in cracks and porous rock. This natural collection of hot water is called a geothermal reservoir.

Yukon Energy is using a reservoir underlying Whitehorse to make our fish hatchery a more comfortable place to work.

For many years, the Whitehorse Rapids Fish Hatchery building was heated by propane. In the spring of 2003, Yukon Energy installed a heat pump to capture excess heat from the groundwater used to supply the fish tanks. The groundwater is from an underground artesian well and has a constant temperature of 6 °C.

The pump extracts heat from the groundwater which is then used to warm the building. This has resulted in a $5,000 per year reduction in the hatchery's heating costs. The propane system is now only used as a back-up source of heat.