Episode 39: Mike Richter on urban geothermal
Geothermal is an unsung hero in the renewable conversation, and new technologies are making it easier to deploy in dense areas--even as a retrofit. Bonus: best career pivot story ... ever?
Last week we talked about the grid and the innovations we’ll need to get more renewable energy flowing reliably, everywhere we need it, and still have utilities and infrastructure able to support the goal of electrifying everything.
This week, let’s talk about an unsung but potentially potent player in the energy mix: geothermal. While wind and solar often steal the renewable spotlight, geothermal energy—derived from the Earth's constant underground heat—offers a clean, infinite source of power for heating and cooling.
In this week’s episode of Everybody in the Pool, I’m joined by Mike Richter, president of Brightcore Energy, to discuss the innovations and obstacles in harnessing geothermal energy. Brightcore specializes in making non-residential buildings more energy-efficient, which evidently still involves changing a lot of light bulbs, and has recently ventured into geothermal heat pumps as a solution for the HVAC system's demands, which constitute the majority of a building's energy consumption.
Mike gave me one of the best explanations I’ve heard about how geothermal heat pumps work—they exchange heat with the Earth's consistent underground temperature, providing an efficient heating and cooling method. That’s even compared to air-source heat pumps, which are still electric and more efficient than gas or oil heaters, but which exchange heat and cooling by using outside air, so if temperatures are extreme, they have to work harder to get indoor temps up or down.
On top of that, advances in drilling technology (transferred from Europe, per Mike) have made it easier to dig far shallower wells and use pipes filled with water or non-toxic glycol, meaning it’s now possible to actually retrofit buildings in dense urban areas with geothermal heat, dramatically reducing a building’s overall carbon footprint, not to mention energy bills. Brightcore offers a product called UrbanGeo, specializing in such projects.
Plus, geothermal energy projects got quite a boost from the Inflation Reduction Act, which has such significant tax incentives that even projects that involve serious construction and digging can be about the same cost as other HVAC installations, and lead to real cost savings in terms of energy use.
Oh, and if you’re a career pivot geek, this is a good one. In case you didn’t already recognize his name, Mike Richter is an NHL legend—a hall-of-famer who played goalie for 15 seasons with the New York Rangers, won a Stanley Cup, and is an Olympic gold and silver medalist. And then he kicked off the second part of his career by, you know, going back to school at Yale. It’s a wonderful story, he’s a great interview, and let’s go, geothermal nerds. This one is for you.
Once more, listen to the episode here! I hope you enjoy and please email me your thoughts and suggestions at in@everybodyinthepool.com. See you next week!
I found this interview fascinating, and loved his story of curiosity leading to action. Also, his perspective that everyone’s an environmentalist! Or at least should be.