Company displays residential and commercial products at AHR Expo.

The baffling element of the Omnibus spending bill passed by Congress in December 2015 was the lawmakers’ decision to extend residential and commercial tax credits for solar photovoltaics and big wind through 2021, while allowing similar incentives for ground source heat pumps and other “orphaned” technologies to die on the vine.

That landmark in geothermal history was eventually followed by the Commonwealth Building in Portland, Oregon, which became the first commercial building in the U.S. to employ a geothermal system for heating and cooling.

If there is someone out there with more industry passion than Jack DiEnna, I have yet to meet them. The best way to describe DiEnna would be the “godfather of geothermal.”

Attendees of the 2018 International Ground Source Heat Pump Association (IGSHPA) Conference and Expo were glowing with optimism, encouraged that the worst may be behind them.

We won’t get fooled again. That was the underlying message of WaterFurnace Intl. Inc.’s 2018 National Sales Meeting in Orlando, Florida.

The federal government passed the geothermal tax credits, and HVAC manufacturers are delivering state-of-the-art, energy-efficient geothermal products.

The geothermal industry had a rough year in 2017, mostly due to an unfair marketplace set up by the government. While solar and wind continued to enjoy the renewable tax credits, geothermal was left out in the cold.

Doug Dougherty has been president and CEO of the Geothermal Exchange Organization (GEO) since March of 2011. In that role, he became a major player in the lobbying effort to get the federal geothermal tax credits passed.

The geothermal industry went to Washington, D.C., numerous times looking for a victory, and it finally left with a huge win.