In addition to the speaking track, the first day included a tour of the KTH heat pump lab and a site visit to a local university that employs a district geothermal system for its heating and cooling. Tour participants were treated to a look at state of the art research. The KTH lab is the also the home of geothermal pioneer Palne Mogensen’s original thermal conductivity testing unit, which he developed in the early 1980’s! Unlike our typical TRT units today, this unit is a heat extraction unit. Palne, who was in attendance, claims it still works but hasn’t functioned lately due to the difficulty of obtaining R22 refrigerant! The second day showcased drilling equipment and other products used in the Scandinavian GSHP industry, along with more excellent workshops and seminars.

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Advocacy Committee
The IGSHPA Committee Manual of Procedures were distributed to all Committee members and reviewed in relationship to the mission of the Committee. Committee Members discussed the need and benefits associated with the potential formation of sub-committees around specific topics such as State “Linkage”, Utility market development, Legislative/Regulatory awareness, and Environmental messaging to be agreed upon. The Committee held a brief “round robin” status update regarding H.R. 5167, which does include GSHP, related to possible extension or renewal of the investment tax credits.

Conference Planning Committee

The conference committee has continued to identify ways to bring more value to attendees. New exhibitors, additional business topics, an awards dinner, a press event and other new activities should help increase attendance over the next few years. The committee has also been working to gather input from geothermal manufacturers and secure their involvement for the 2018 show.

Marketing Committee

The marketing committee was directed by the board to focus on membership, publications, training, and the conference, so working with other committee’s will be important and will also require more volunteers. If you are interested in serving on the marketing committee, reach out to Erin for more information.

Membership Committee

Membership Committee Chair, Chris Smith, announced that he will be stepping down as chair after serving many years in this role. IGSHPA appreciates the many contributions Chris has made to the organization over the years. Chris will remain on the committee as a member.

Membership has been working closely with the Strategic Planning subcommittee of the Board to help identify staff direction and priorities. The Membership Committee helped develop a survey that will be sent to past members in the next few weeks to identify how IGSHPA can improve its member services. The committee is also working on making CEUs available online for the members.

Research Committee
Highlights from the 8^thChinese GSHP Industry Summit are summarized below:

• By 2015, the installed capacity of GSHP systems in China has reached 11, 781 MWt and the average annual growth rate is 22% from 2010 to 2015. The installed case of GSHP systems in China contributes more than 30% of the worldwide total.
• The 13^th 5-year Chinese National Development Strategic Plan includes accelerating geothermal energy development, which is the first time in the history. According to this plan, 700 million square meters more buildings will be conditioned with GSHP systems in China from 2016 through 2020.
• Chinese Engineering Academy is developing a strategic development plan for Chinese geothermal energy. In addition, the Chinese National Energy Bureau and the National Standardization Council jointly formed a Geothermal Energy Technology and Standardization Committee in May, 2016, which is responsible for developing national standards and development plan for geothermal energy utilization.
• Technology development is needed to enable broader use of geothermal energy, including combination of shallow and deep geothermal energy resources, and geothermal resources identification and characterization.
• Financial capital is a key to facilitate the rapid growth of geothermal industry. PPP investment is a promising business mode to integrate technology, management, and capital. Read More

Standards Committee
The Board approved a new section for inclusion in the 2016 IGSHPA Standards. The new Section 7 is entitled, Direct GeoExchange Earth Loop Systems. The Standards Committee is currently reviewing a revision to Section 3 Indoor Piping and Circulation Systems for presentation to the Board for approval before the end of this year.

Strategic Planning Subcommittee

The Strategic Tasks Sub-Committee has been meeting every week to identify and articulate some goals and directions for the IGSHPA staff and the organization's focus. We realize that the association needs to bolster the membership numbers and focus on training objectives. These are the two of the largest revenue generators and, in part, some of the highest profile membership services that IGSHPA can provide. The three areas of focus are; Reconnecting with old members; Digital Training; and Individual BOD members and staff meeting directly with manufacturers, utilities, and other professional organizations as well as connecting with current members. The BOD approved these tasks in the October meeting. Read More

Training Committee
The Residential Designer Course development is well underway. This course is geared to residential contracting companies and will focus on a design methodology to help optimize the design of a typical residential GSHP system. It will focus on what a designer can do to ensure the mechanical system and ground heat exchanger are sized appropriately, what can be done to minimize the cost of installing the system while improving the performance of the system.

Members, you can now earn CEUs online through the IGSHPA website! Earn .2 CEUs per hour of videos watched with an online quiz passing grade of 100%. To gain access to the videos to earn CEUs, visit the website to register for the video site.

For your IGSHPA renewal, you will need a total of 8 CEU’s, 7 of which can be achieved through employment and organization membership. You will need 1 CEU that can be achieved by watching these learning videos. Access to these videos is FREE until January 31, 2017.

The conference planning committee has been working hard for our members to make sure the conference is better than ever and continues to serve our members. Highlights of the changes include

• New Start Day, More Session Times, Dedicated Expo Hours
• Session offerings of industry case studies, technical how-to’s, and tools you can use to increase your business in marketing, financing and more
• Wednesday night awards dinner to highlight the innovative applications in the industry, highlight achievements of our members, and recognize supporters inside and outside of the industry
• Opening reception in the exhibit hall Tuesday night
• Closing session on Thursday during lunch

Register now!

Funeral services for Pete Peterson were held Tuesday, October 25, in Glasgow, Kentucky. Pete passed away at his home October 22. Pete was an early adopter of the ground source heat pump technology in the early 80s and founder of Geothermal Supply Company. Under Pete's leadership, GSC grew from a small three man operation to employing as many as 25 men and women and had customers throughout the world. Click here to read the full obituary.

The Geothermal Technologies Office seeks to conduct feasibility studies of large-scale, low-temperature deep-well geothermal systems coupled with advanced direct-use applications and cascaded surface technologies whose applications will extend the reach of geothermal into geologically distinct parts of the country beyond the western U.S. These systems are referred to herein as Deep Direct-Use or DDU.

This FOA will solicit applications that propose projects supporting DDU feasibility studies in two Topic Areas:

• Topic Area 1 “DDU Feasibility Studies” will focus on the initial site selection, resource assessment, and feasibility study of DDU technology(s).
• Topic Area 2 “DDU Community of Practice Administration and Techno-Economic Validation of DDU Projects” seeks to convene and establish a DDU Community of Practice (COP).

To view the full notice of intent, click here.