Jack DiEnna, executive director at Geothermal National & International Initiative (GEO-NII), thinks this is geo’s moment. 

“This is our time,” he said. “This is all-American — energy, workers, and products. … It’s up to us — those of us that are in this industry — to make sure that people recognize we're talking about all-American energy.” 

An All-American Asset

DiEnna calls geothermal a “triple-E technology”: energy independence and security, environmental stability and resilience, and economic prosperity and sustainability — in other words, exactly what the EOs are calling for. 

The EOs are: 

1/ “Declaring a national energy emergency,” which stated: “The United States has the potential to use its unrealized energy resources domestically, which would create jobs and economic prosperity for Americans forgotten in the present economy.” 

2/ “Unleashing American Energy,” which said: “It is in the National Interest to unleash America’s affordable and reliable energy and natural resources. This will restore American prosperity and ensure that an abundant supply of reliable energy is readily accessible in every State & territory of the Nation.” 

Combine those with a recent DOE report, “Pathways to Commercial Liftoff, Geothermal Heating and Cooling,” industry experts say, and it’s the recipe for geo success. (Full report here.) Published in January 2025, it states that a national-scale mass deployment of geothermal heat pumps could result in reducing wholesale payments for electric grid services by at least $300 billion through 2050. (The study considered deployment to 43% of commercial and institutional and 78% of residential floor space.) 

“It's saying we have inadequate energy supply and infrastructure,” he said. And while it’s easy to assume this is about oil and gas, the EOs actually don’t define the source used to create energy, “which is what we do — we pull energy out of the ground.” 

DiEnna himself is in the process of meeting with two senators, because he thinks now is the strongest time ever to make the case for large-scale geo investment. 

“We're in a ‘national emergency’ — we should be taking advantage of that in our industry, and that executive order says we need a reliable, diversified, and affordable supply of energy,” he said. “Well, we have that in the ground. … We have to make them realize that heating and cooling is 40% of every building's cost. And 40% of all the energy used in the United States is from buildings. It's more than transportation. So wouldn't our industry be the one to go to?” 

Ryan Dougherty, executive director at Geothermal Exchange Organization (GEO), said his organization, too, is “encouraged” by the EO declaring a national energy emergency, because geothermal heat, among other technologies, is referred to specifically. 

‘We assume that they're talking about the whole spectrum of geothermal, because we have both geothermal electricity production and then low-temperature heating and cooling applications that could really fall under that description of geothermal heat,” he explained. 

“It was also great to see recent comments from Secretary of Energy Chris Wright that really supported that across-the-board geothermal concept, not just for power production but also for heating and cooling applications,” he said. “Can we take that to the bank? We're not sure, but we certainly are raising up the visibility of the technology and what seems to be the tacit support of the administration when we are talking to members of Congress,” Dougherty said. 

In other words, having the nod from the White House will come in handy when lobbying Congress for geo tax credits. Right now, GEO is focusing on preserving federal incentives for geothermal as the Senate Committee on Finance and the House Ways and Means Committee make a determination about the ins and outs of the tax code. 

This Congress, Dougherty said, is quite concerned with the incentivization, or potential incentivization, of foreign-sourced materials and products. So he has been hammering the message around energy security and positive impacts for the electric grid, as well as savings for homeowners, good-paying jobs, and U.S.-manufactured equipment. 

“Not only are the heat pumps made here, with a significant majority of domestic components, but all of the complementary equipment in a geothermal heat pump installation is made in the United States, from the pipe to the fittings to the grout, which is really compelling for Congress,” he said. “We have a great story to tell about an all-American industry.” 

How Much Should Geo Be Incentivized? 

Geo groups are also doubling down on utility support for the technology. 

Rapidly increasing load growth on the electric grid, driven largely by data centers, is a topic of great concern for everyone in Congress, regardless of political party, Dougherty said — and one they’re seeking to address on a bipartisan basis. He’s been making the case that a geothermal system benefits not just the owner of the building it serves, but all the other rate payers served by that utility. 

“It avoids future capital expenditure to meet peak demand requirements by shaving the peak,” he explained. “And because geothermal systems operate so consistently and so efficiently, regardless of outdoor ambient temperatures, the system is just chugging along the same as it would on a nice, mild day, even in periods of extreme weather.” 

The more geo is installed on an electric system, the more powerful the peak shaving effect. 

“The most valuable form of power is the kilowatt hour that's never consumed,” Dougherty said. “If we take that generation need off the grid, that has a significant financial value to an electric utility.” 

Some utilities already offer incentives for geothermal heat pump installation, but Dougherty thinks they should be doubled, tripled, quadrupled — both residential and commercial — to spark mass deployment. 

“[Today’s incentives] don’t accurately reflect the true grid value of the technology,” he said. “I contend that if utility companies were to actually do a thorough analysis of the true value of avoided future generation costs due to geothermal, they would be more likely to incentivize the systems at a much higher rate.” 

DiEnna thinks utilities would benefit from investing in geothermal infrastructure. 

“Why do we expect building owners to finance the GSHP infrastructure but no other utility infrastructure?” he queried. “Every one of the reports mentioned recognizes the value that GHPs deliver and should be the catalyst that would allow utilities — electric, gas, or water — to own the ground loop as a renewable asset. This would take the ground loop out of the project and remove the high first cost, one of the major barriers of this technology, and add to the utility’s renewable portfolio.” 

Deployment 

DiEnna wants to start the geo revolution with commercial/institutional buildings — in particular, schools. According to a June 2020 report to Congress by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) about the state of U.S. public school facilities, 41% of districts need to update or replace HVAC systems in at least half of their schools. He has a geo plan for individual Americans, too: Let residential customers put financing for the heat pump on their utility bill, and have the HVAC contractor who installs it get paid by the utility. 

“We did that before, decades ago — if you put a new gas boiler in, you could actually put it on your utility bill and pay for it from the savings,” he said. 

According to the “Pathways to Commercial Liftoff” report, because less grid infrastructure investment would be required with the large-scale deployment of GHPs, it would reduce the cost of power for all grid consumers, even those who do not have the technology installed, he added. 

And geothermal is incredibly efficient. 

“If you give this technology $1 of electricity, you get $4 of energy in return,” said Tim Wright, COO at Enertech. 

In order for geothermal to be implemented at a large scale, he said, the industry would need to ramp up — and that’s another benefit. 

“We’re going to need more U.S.-based manufacturers,” he said. “We're going to need more drillers. We're going to need more installers, which, again, is more jobs. Doesn't matter left or right side of the aisle: A healthy economy, a vibrant economy, is when everybody is working.”