Chris B

Greg Reid: Geothermal, the 'Sleeping Giant'

bpickard,

You're right. That's one reason I own LSB Industries (LXU). While everyone's attention is on centralized energy harvesting from large geothermal installations, the biggest economic gains are available from heating and cooling structures using the dirt around them instead of expensive gas and electricity.

The downside is that most home buyers are more still concerned about paint colors than how many tens of thousands of dollars they will spend heating and cooling the place. That's why code-minimum HVAC units and insulation prevail in new construction.

I'm betting that ignorance will change. If not, there's always LSB's chemical and fertilizer businesses to fall back on, plus their solid balance sheet and cash flow.


On Apr 23 03:57 PM bpickard wrote:

> Another aspect of 'geothermal' is available for residential construction
> today, and delivers a better ROI than any large plant. Systems that
> make use of the differential between the ground temperature and ambient
> temperature exist now, are proven, are reasonable in cost to build,
> have a positive ROI, and a cash-pay-back of much less than 5 years
> over a conventional heating system. In areas across the northern
> latitudes where differences in temperatures are higher (on average)
> these systems can make the difference in the avoidance of the construction
> of new power plants.