{"id":71566,"date":"2025-07-18T03:06:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T03:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/71566\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T03:06:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T03:06:09","slug":"hockey-hall-of-famer-champions-geothermal-innovation-in-nyc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/71566\/","title":{"rendered":"Hockey Hall of Famer Champions Geothermal Innovation in NYC"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Hockey\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The name Mike Richter is well-known among hockey fans. Richter spent 15 years in the National Hockey League as a goalie for the New York Rangers, including in 1994 when he was a fixture in the net during the team\u2019s Stanley Cup winning season. Richter was also recognized as the most valuable player for the U.S.\u2019s 1996 gold medal winning World Cup team, as well as a member of three U.S. Olympic teams, including in 2002 when the team won the silver medal. Richter was inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in 2008.<\/p>\n

But what is likely lesser known is that Richter is the current president of Brightcore Energy<\/a>, a leading provider of integrated, end-to-end clean energy solutions to the commercial, institutional, and government markets. The Armonk, New York\u2013headquartered company\u2019s services include high-efficiency geothermal-based heating and cooling systems for both new construction and existing building retrofits, among other things. Brightcore\u2019s turnkey, single-point solution encompasses all project development phases including preliminary modeling, feasibility and design, incentive and policy guidance, construction and implementation, and system performance monitoring.<\/p>\n

As a guest on The POWER Podcast<\/a>, Richter noted that heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems for commercial, industrial, and municipal buildings consume an enormous amount of energy in a place like New York City. Furthermore, the emissions associated with these systems can be significant. \u201cIf you can address that, you\u2019re doing something important, and that\u2019s really where our focus has been, particularly the last few years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Geothermal Heating and Cooling Systems<\/p>\n

Traditional geothermal often requires significant open space for the geothermal borefield and can have material time implications in project development. Brightcore says its exclusive UrbanGeo solution combines proprietary geothermal drilling technology and techniques that increase the feasibility of geothermal heating and cooling applicability while reducing construction development timelines.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe typically go between 500 and 1,000 feet down,\u201d Richter explained. \u201cThe ambient temperature of the ground about four feet down below our feet here in New York is 55 degrees [Fahrenheit] year-round.\u201d<\/p>\n

The constant and stable underground temperature is the key to geothermal heating and cooling systems. Even when the air above ground is extremely hot or freezing cold, the earth\u2019s steady temperature provides a valuable heating or cooling resource.<\/p>\n

A geothermal system has pipes buried underground that fluid is circulated through, and a heat pump inside the building. In winter, the fluid in the pipes absorbs warmth from the earth and brings it inside. There, the heat pump \u201ccompresses\u201d this heat, raising its temperature so it can warm the building air comfortably\u2014even when it\u2019s icy cold outside.<\/p>\n

In summer, the system works in reverse. The heat pump pulls heat out of the building\u2019s air, sending it through the same underground pipes. Since the earth is cooler than the hot summer air, it acts like a giant heat sponge, soaking up unwanted heat from the building. This process cools the living space easily and efficiently, using a lot less energy than a regular air conditioner because the ground is always cooler than the hot outdoor air.<\/p>\n

So, whether it\u2019s heating or cooling, a geothermal system can keep buildings comfortable by moving heat between the building and the earth. \u201c[It\u2019s] pretty straightforward and very, very efficient and effective, particularly\u2014and this is key\u2014at the extremes,\u201d said Richter. \u201cAir source heat pumps are excellent and they continue to get better,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Working in Urban Areas<\/p>\n

Geothermal heating and cooling schemes are often used at large universities and on other fairly spread-out campuses. Implementing the solution in those types of settings is fairly easy. Where it gets more complicated is in dense urban areas like New York City. Yet, while it\u2019s a little more difficult, it\u2019s still very doable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had sophisticated people\u2014developers and what not\u2014say, \u2018Yeah, we\u2019re building in New York. We would love geothermal. We used that out in a college somewhere with a lot of land and it was great. But we\u2019re in the city and it\u2019s densely populated. Can\u2019t do it.\u2019 That\u2019s not true. They\u2019ve been doing that in New York for decades now,\u201d said Richter.<\/p>\n

Richter noted that Brightcore has an office in Stockholm, Sweden, which has been instrumental in technology transfer across the Atlantic. \u201cWe\u2019re in the early, early days\u2014it\u2019s about 1% market penetration here in the states. It\u2019s, I think, 25% in Scandinavia. They\u2019re 20 years ahead of us,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019ve gone through a lot of these same questions and answered them with an exclamation point. This works well!\u201d<\/p>\n

The key in urban areas revolves around precision drilling techniques. \u201cWe\u2019re borrowing from the fracking industry, and the oil and gas industry,\u201d Richter explained. \u201cThey\u2019ve been in the business for a long, long time, and that breakthrough in directional drilling for fracking was a material change for the industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richter said the ability to drill down, for example, at 7.5 degrees, and then move to a slightly different angle after 100 feet is crucial to success. \u201cThe more control and precision and certainty you have of where that drill head is, the more opportunities you have to put geothermal in, because navigating through water tunnels and fiber optic cable and foundations matter, obviously,\u201d he said. \u201cThe sophistication of our equipment and our ability to monitor where and the precise guidance of that drill is absolutely paramount, and we\u2019re really dialing that in as an industry, and we feel like we\u2019re one of the leaders in that specific area as a company.\u201d<\/p>\n

Geothermal Cost-Benefit Analysis<\/p>\n

Yet, it\u2019s rare for a customer to install an HVAC system if the economics don\u2019t make sense. Richter admitted that geothermal systems have a significant front-end cost, but if you look at the entire lifecycle, they often pay off. He said in a retrofit project there is usually between 30% and 60% savings, depending on the type of system being replaced.<\/p>\n

Brightcore\u2019s system is a forced air design, which requires a lot of duct work. That can be a significant expense in buildings originally constructed with baseboard heating, for example, so it\u2019s not a no-brainer for everyone. \u201cIt just comes down to the cost-benefit analysis,\u201d Richter said. \u201cYou really have to look in a slightly different way, and that\u2019s a lifecycle analysis. What\u2019s the capex [capital expenditure]? What\u2019s the front-end cost? What does it cost to operate this thing over 20 years, compared to what the front-end costs of whatever the incumbent would be? And what does it cost to operate that?\u201d<\/p>\n

In the U.S., government incentives can help a lot. \u201cThe IRA [Inflation Reduction Act] effectively can cleave 40% to 50% off of the front-end cost,\u201d said Richter. \u201cWhat\u2019s beautiful about it is putting the boreholes in the ground and having the whole thermal system in the ground, and then the mechanical system, both are subject to this tax treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richter explained that the tax benefits really start with a 30% credit. Then, another 10% can be captured when American-made technologies are utilized, which he said is pretty easily hit. If the system is installed in an economic development zone, owners get another 10% credit, up to 50% off on the entire system including mechanical equipment. \u201cSo, it can be at par or even less,\u201d Richter said. \u201cBut operationally, it\u2019s almost always cheaper to run a geothermal system, just because the coefficients of the performance blow everything else away.\u201d<\/p>\n

And while the One Big Beautiful Bill Act has stripped some incentives from solar and wind technologies, incentives for geothermal systems were not cut. \u201cThe Trump administration is supporting this,\u201d said Richter. \u201cThere will be a lot of bloodshed when it comes to other sustainable energy products, like solar and wind \u2026 Geothermal has been left slightly better because the incentives remain.\u201d<\/p>\n

To hear the full interview with Richter, which includes details about Brightcore\u2019s mission, other efficiency and renewable work it\u2019s involved in, the importance of educating the public about the benefits of geothermal systems, and more, listen to\u00a0The POWER Podcast. Click on the SoundCloud player below to listen in your browser now or use the following links to reach the show page on your favorite podcast platform:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

For more power podcasts, visit\u00a0The POWER Podcast archives<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2014Aaron Larson<\/strong> is POWER\u2019s executive editor (@AaronL_Power, @POWERmagazine).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The name Mike Richter is well-known among hockey fans. Richter spent 15 years in the National Hockey League…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":71567,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,50050,50051,50052,34189,50053,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,50054,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-71566","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-building-energy","10":"tag-cooling","11":"tag-efficiency","12":"tag-geothermal","13":"tag-heating","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-newyork","17":"tag-newyorkcity","18":"tag-ny","19":"tag-nyc","20":"tag-the-power-podcast","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-united-states-of-america","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114872030697360034","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}