“Albertans are really good at a bunch of things,” says Lisa Mueller, CEO of FutEra Power , an energy developer in Canada’s oil capital, Calgary. “But nothing more so than the business of drilling wells.”

Mueller isn’t talking about hydrocarbons. The veteran of Canada’s oil patch — she worked for petrogiant Shell and later junior energy developer Razor Energy for a decade before taking on the top job at FutEra — has her mind on geothermal.

Geothermal energy is found in the ultra-hot regions far below the earth’s surface. Temperatures of 250C and higher can be tapped by running water-filled drill-pipes through these zones and using the steam to turn electricity-generating turbines.

Mueller calls geothermal “the renewable cousin to oil and gas.”

“It’s a practical adaptation

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