Startup Series: Residential Geothermal with Dandelion Energy

My Climate Journey

Dan Yates is the CEO and Chairman of Dandelion Energy, a Series B Stage startup deploying solutions for residential geothermal energy.

As Dan explains it, residential geothermal distinguishes itself from utility-scale geothermal by not aiming to exploit a scarce, underground heat source for electricity generation through turbines. Instead, the process involves circulating an aqueous solution through a closed loop underground. This allows the system to harness the stable temperature of the soil beneath and employ it for both heating and cooling functions in a residential ground source heat pump. Essentially, residential geothermal aligns with the trajectory of residential HVAC heat pump adoption, serving as a means to maintain a dependable and efficient temperature for optimal heat pump performance.

Dan is a repeat guest on My Climate Journey. He joined Jason way back on Episode 7 to recount his journey as the Co-founder and the CEO of Opower. Dandelion's Co-founder, Kathy Hannun, was also on the pod way back on Episode 35. A lot has changed in that time.

In today's conversation, we touch a bit on Dan's Opower journey, but most of the time is spent on Dandelion and geothermal. We also cover Dandelion's current geographic focus areas, the technologies it has developed, how they operate the company, the business model, the recent tax incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act and other legislation that have benefited the company, and so much more.

In this episode, we cover:

• Dandelion's mission to bring residential geothermal to scale
• Dan's experience at Opower and its thesis
• Difference between residential geothermal and utility-scale
• How residential geothermal works and its benefits
• Dandelion's closed-loop solution
• Geographic focus areas of Dandelion Energy
• The company's heat pump technology
• Recent tax incentives for geothermal energy
• An overview of Dandelion's operations
• The company's business model and funding to date
• Dandelion's biggest challenges and barriers to growth
• Estimated cost breakdown for homeowners looking to switch to geothermal with Dandelion
• Career opportunities with Dandelion and how folks can spread the word about geothermal

Episode recorded on Jan 18, 2024 (Published on Feb 15, 2024)

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