October 17, 2022 – World Geothermal Day!

About World Geothermal Energy Day – This is the one day when people around the globe celebrate the virtues and benefits of geothermal, open their shops for tours (both virtual and physical), discuss new technologies, and work to include geothermal in legislation at the local, regional, national and international levels.

The Hashtag is #WorldGeothermalEnergyDay

Find out more about Geothermal Day and related events at https://worldgeothermalenergyday.org/2022-events

April 19-21, 2022 – IGSHPA’s Geothermal Accredited Installer Training – 8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

SEI and PA Geo are planning a loop training course that will be held in Exton at CCEDC. Register and learn more https://ghsptraining.eventbrite.com

Carl Robins of WaterFurnace International will instruct the three-day comprehensive Installation Workshops are designed for GSHP installers, contractors, dealers, home builders, manufacturers, distributors, architects, heating cooling mechanical engineers, trenching/water well drilling contractors, and anyone who desires a working knowledge of this innovative technology. Representatives from public utilities, private utilities, and rural electric cooperatives can also benefit from training. Information gathered from the workshops can help utility representatives serve as a source of information regarding money-saving concepts.

 

December 1, 2021 – GSHP Systems and Energy Modeling to Minimize Size and Cost of a GHX – 8:30 a.m.

Learn more and REGISTER for the course being held virtually on December 1 at 8:30 a.m. – GSHP Systems  and Energy Modeling to Minimize Size and Cost of a GHX

The Smart Energy Initiative will host a virtual training opportunity for architects, designers, developers & contractors on why they should consider a GSHP system for an upcoming commercial project. Key topics include designing the most effective, and operationally costs saving system. Specifically, this presentation demonstrates the impact of changes to a building and / or mechanical system can have on the size and performance of a GSHP system and how energy modeling can be used to minimize the size and cost of a GHX, while ensuring long-term, efficient operation.

This live Zoom program will provide detailed information on the benefits of planning their projects with Geothermal Heating and Cooling systems as the prime source of atmosphere control in their projects.

Learn more and REGISTER

8/24 – White House Announcement Boosts PACE Prospects

Monday, August 24th 2015

From greentechmedia.com:

NevadaObamaSolar_0_310_224Some barriers to popularizing the property-assessed clean energy (PACE) program across the U.S. were cleared today with an announcement made by President Obama at the National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas, Nevada.

PACE loan programs let homeowners finance energy-efficiency upgrades, such as adding insulation and water savings measures or installing energy-efficient windows or solar panels, to be paid back as a line item on the homeowner’s property tax bill. This lowers the risk for lenders and owners and can potentially build a much larger energy-efficiency market.

But PACE obligations enjoy first-lien status in most states, making municipalities first in line to be repaid — ahead of the mortgage agencies, in case of default — and mortgage agencies don’t like that. 

So today, the White House and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) established a new PACE guidance aiming to “remove existing barriers and accelerate the use of PACE financing for single-family housing.” (The FHA guidance letter can be found here.)

According to the California Association of Realtors, the FHA guidance will require PACE liens to be subordinate to FHA single-family first-mortgage financing,

As Cisco DeVries, CEO of Renew Financial, notes in a release, “The FHA, which insures over 20 percent of new mortgage originations in the United States, outlined a set of principles associated with their new guidance — including allowing PACE financing to transfer between owners during the sale of the home if the PACE lien can be subordinated during a foreclosure.”

In a statement from today, Ed Golding, head of the FHA, wrote, “PACE allows homeowners to benefit from the improvements immediately and spread the cost over time. When the property is sold, the PACE loan may transfer to the next owner, who is responsible for repaying the loan. The ability to transfer the loan to the new owner allows for both the payment and the value of the retrofit to be transferred from one owner to the next.”

California completed about $500 million in residential PACE projects for approximately 25,000 homes in 2014, according to PACENow, a nonprofit that promotes the PACE model.

Read more at greentechmedia.com:

11/21 – Amazon Joins Google, Facebook with 100% Renewable Energy Pledge

Friday, November 21st 2014

From Wired.com:

VA: Amazon Web ServicesOver the past few years, Apple, Google, and Facebook pledged to run their online empires on renewable energy, and considering how large these empires have become—how many data centers and machines are now required to keep them going—this was a vital thing. But despite pressure from the likes of Greenpeace, the environmental activism organization, the other big internet name, Amazon, didn’t budge.

That all changed on Wednesday. With a post on its website, Amazon’s cloud computing division—Amazon Web Services—said it has a “long-term commitment to achieve 100 percent renewable energy usage for our global infrastructure footprint.”

Amazon is the largest cloud computing company in the world, providing services where developers and business can rent computing power. Many popular websites and services, such as Netflix, Spotify and Pinterest, all use the Amazon cloud. If Amazon cuts its emissions, it could have a significant impact on the tech industry’s carbon footprint.

Read more at Wired.com