[Interview] Learnings from Ball State and the Largest Geothermal Project and What It means for Selling District Heating Geothermal A few months ago, I heard about the largest geothermal heat pump installation was breaking ground at Ball State University. Clearly, this is amazing project that could change the whole industry. Also, I always noticed PR for huge solar PV… Continue reading “[Interview] Learnings from Ball State and the Largest Geothermal Project and What It means for Selling District Heating Geothermal”
Reminder: Aug 3rd Meeting to Determine Details of Thermal RECs in NH For those of doing geothermal business in New Hampshire. You NEED to go to this. This is a huge step forward for the geothermal industry. Thanks to NEGPA for spear heading this. See below, you must RSVP to attend. Here’s… Continue reading “Reminder: Aug 3rd Meeting to Determine Details of Thermal RECs in NH”
The Coolest, Most Bad%ss, Great Geothermal Marketing Video Ever Made Thanks to Energy Smart Alternatives for creating this video and posting it on twitter, where I found it, while I was stalking you. To give credit where credit is due, Love’s Geothermal down in Maryland also has an amazing “story… Continue reading “The Coolest, Most Bad%ss, Great Geothermal Marketing Video Ever Made”
“What’s the Most Efficient?” Geo VS Solar Thermal VS Solar PV I’m doing some sales consulting work in NYC, and there’s one question I’m getting a lot from property owners: “What is the most efficient renewable energy technology?” In the city, they are mainly speaking of solar PV vs solar thermal,… Continue reading ““What’s the Most Efficient?” Geo VS Solar Thermal VS Solar PV”
Finance 101 For Geothermal Pros (Image using LoopLink Geothermal Design Software) The only thing that the geothermal industry needs to worry about is sales. We need more sales. For the most part, we have talented enough engineers and tradespeople to install any project that we… Continue reading “Finance 101 For Geothermal Pros”
Geothermal Performance Case Study: Closed Loop vs. DX vs. Kelix Thermocouple (This post has received a lot of feedback as expected, I’ve posted some update information at the bottom of the post from Sam Johnson’s team and from Kelix themselves) Last month, I published an interview about the Kelix ground coupling… Continue reading “Geothermal Performance Case Study: Closed Loop vs. DX vs. Kelix Thermocouple”
Lessons Learned from Selling Community Scale Geothermal in New England I’ve heard a lot of pitches to about community geothermal, using a single loop field for many different households. The main benefit is simple, a reduction in drilling costs due to economies of scale. The roadblack, as always, is actually… Continue reading “Lessons Learned from Selling Community Scale Geothermal in New England”
Finance 101 for Renewable Energy Professionals Understanding finance is required to sell renewable energy projects. It’s needed to communicate the value of both residential and commercial projects, and for all types of technologies: solar PV, solar hot water, and geothermal heat pumps. The reason financial metrics are… Continue reading “Finance 101 for Renewable Energy Professionals”
Selling Geothermal as a Hedge Against Rising Energy Prices Those of us in the ground source heat pump (GSHP) industry already know of the many benefits that these systems hold over conventional heating and cooling systems (and have probably explained them a hundred times over). But as the appeal… Continue reading “Selling Geothermal as a Hedge Against Rising Energy Prices”
5 Tips on Designing Vertical or Slinky Geothermal Loop Fields We’ve found it useful to focus on both articles that will help companies with their sales and marketing AND design and installation. A few weeks ago, I shared a piece – thanks to Ryan Carda – on geothermal flow path analysis for ground… Continue reading “5 Tips on Designing Vertical or Slinky Geothermal Loop Fields”
HS TV Ep 8: 1/2 the Drilling Depth, 1/3 the Footprint, SCW vs. Closed Loop Geothermal Systems Standing column well geothermal projects have significant advantages over closed geothermal projects in certain circumstances. Standing column wells typically need half the amount of drilling then traditional closed systems, because they can transfer heat so much faster. Also, they be… Continue reading “HS TV Ep 8: 1/2 the Drilling Depth, 1/3 the Footprint, SCW vs. Closed Loop Geothermal Systems”
The 4 Differences Between Geothermal Standing Column Well and Closed Loop Systems There are four major differences between standing column well (SCW) and closed loop geothermal systems. The use of exchange fluid Loop materials and characteristics Use of heat exchangers Applications of the technology To learn more about standing column well design, download… Continue reading “The 4 Differences Between Geothermal Standing Column Well and Closed Loop Systems”
Geothermal Loop Design: Series vs Parallel Flow Path Analysis When designing geothermal ground loops, this is an issue that a lot of people get hung up on. Because of the advantages of, we use parallel circuits in ground loops almost exclusively in our industry. Read more to hear why. When loops are tied… Continue reading “Geothermal Loop Design: Series vs Parallel Flow Path Analysis”
What You Need to know About Quoting and Selling Standing Column Well Systems It’s much easier to answer this question for residential applications. The price is composed of three pieces: the drilling cost, the loop field installation including underground piping to/from the building, and the HVAC system installation. Many times the driller is… Continue reading “What You Need to know About Quoting and Selling Standing Column Well Systems”
“Best Practices for Selling Geothermal” on Wednesday’s #GeoChat On 11am on Wednesday, January 18th, HeatSpring will be hosting a #geochat with guest expert Martin Orio, VP at Water Energy Distributors on twitter. Read more about the #geochat here. The topic for the first #geochat is “Best Practices for… Continue reading ““Best Practices for Selling Geothermal” on Wednesday’s #GeoChat”
HS TV Ep. 7: “Geothermal Will Give you Better Returns than the Stock Market” One of our goals in 2012 is to explore what can be done to make geothermal a mainstream technology. To get some more insights into what we need to do as an industry, I had a conversion with Harold, the… Continue reading “HS TV Ep. 7: “Geothermal Will Give you Better Returns than the Stock Market””
13 Steps to Basic Geothermal Standing Column Well Design HeatSpring Instructor Albert Koenig discusses the 13 steps to basic Geothermal Standing Column Well (SCW) Design… Unlike closed loop geothermal installations, open loop systems, in particular, standing column well (SCW), require more diligence from the designer than just the well… Continue reading “13 Steps to Basic Geothermal Standing Column Well Design”
4-Step Guide to Designing Geothermal Systems The first part to understanding any aspect of the geothermal industry, whether it be marketing, sales, design or installation is to understand how the technology works and it is designed. By understanding the design process, even if you are never… Continue reading “4-Step Guide to Designing Geothermal Systems”
How to Measure Demand for Geothermal Heating and Cooling in Your Area Your organization might want to break into the renewable energy fields — you may be considering geothermal and solar installation or energy auditing, but you might not know if you should take the plunge. You must determine: is there demand? The truth is, most times it… Continue reading “How to Measure Demand for Geothermal Heating and Cooling in Your Area”
Get LoopLink RLC Certified and Become a Geothermal Designer! The Geothermal Designer Boot Camp + LoopLink™ RLC course is a joint effort between Geo-Connections and HeatSpring designed to make experienced geothermal system designers – expert geothermal system designers. The goal of the program is to reward industry professionals who have taken… Continue reading “Get LoopLink RLC Certified and Become a Geothermal Designer!”