Thermal Energy Storage, or why I've been scarce around here lately

Eight Years Wasted

I lost my job a few weeks ago. First time in my life that's ever happened.

Looking back on it, despite some good times in the earlier days, that job was a nearly complete waste of eight years of my life. My salary increased an average of less than 1% per year since I started there. It was costing me over $150 per week commuting into Boston every day. I billed over 1,700 hours in FY 2009, and I got skunked on my bonus. Again. My severance package? Five frickin' weeks. I should have left years ago, and the only thing that kept me there was my friend/mentor who I've known for 23 years.

Honestly, I felt relieved. Joyful even. It was to the point where I hated getting up in the morning and dragging myself into the office. I couldn't stand most of the management team, the endless meetings, the mind-numbing processes for process sake, the command-and-control micromanagement mentality, the utter and complete lack of any sort of entrepreneurial spirit. It morphed into a completely different company than the one I joined back in 2002.

What did I do on the afternoon that I was laid off? I walked out of the door and not into a bar, but down the street and across the Charles River to MIT where I sat in on a MIT/Sloan School course on writing business plans.

About this time last year, things really started to slow down, and because I had just finished a large project, my billable hours dropped to about half of what they historically had been. At that time, I approached management with an idea that I had hatched back in grad school. It was an innovative green energy technology that was now being used in Sweden, where I was born. It had the promise to keep a lot of our under-utilized environmental scientists busy - ready made for the skill set that many of our employees already had. I had done my research, made some connections, and had an invitation from the leading US expert in this technology to meet him in New Jersey where he would give me a tour of the only facility in the US that is currently using this technology. Excited and energized, and passionate about the opportunity to actually save clients money in their energy costs rather than rack up billable hours on mundane compliance work, I approached the office manager and told him what I was up to and asked him to sign off on a one-day non-billable trip to NJ, plus travel. Our "improved" management system now requires written approval from the office manager for any non-billable expenditure over $50 :rolleyes: . He turned me down, staing that he thought it might take years to book a sale using this technology, and he needed short-term results.

That's when I realized that this was a dead-end job and that it was finally time for me, at the age of 48, to start my own business. I've been working my ass off this past year holding down my full-time job and setting up my new business after hours. I set up an LLC. Raided the retirement fund. Took some vacation time and got some training. Spent countless hours reading and learning everything I could. Had a logo designed, business cards made up, bought some office equipment and remodeled my home office. Took more time off and sent myself to a conference in Sweden where I learned as much as I could and met the world leaders and practitioners of this technology. Established teaming arrangements with the industry leaders for projects I intend to win in the US. Designed and tweaked a web site. Started making calls and meeting policy makers and potential clients in my off time. Authored papers and gave presentations. Planted the seeds of commerce.

I can't help but be nervous about my financial situation and my future. I have a kid in college and two more in the que. Fortunately my wife has a good-paying job as an RN and she will be picking up more shifts. But I know I can do this, and that I will be successful. It's just a matter of continuing to plant those seeds and waiting for them to sprout.

I honestly feel I will look back on this time as the most important change of my life - when I really began my new career and started on the path to true success. It's going to be a wild ride.
 
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The Technology and the Business

Because the above post was pretty vague about this “innovative green energy technology” around which I formed my company, let me tell you a little bit about it. I think it may be of interest to a lot of forum members who appreciate innovation, problem solving, and business challenges.

I’m a hydrogeologist. That means I have expertise in understanding the hydraulics of groundwater flow systems, and I’ve spent most of my career up until now applying those skills to the characterization and remediation of contaminated soil and groundwater. I was idealistic about “cleaning up the environment” when I joined the work force, but after a few years I realized that most of my efforts and huge amounts of my clients’ money were directed at problems that, in the grand scheme of things, were insignificant. As oil prices approached $150/barrel in 2008, I found myself thinking more and more about an idea I had hatched back in grad school: Why not use solar collectors to make lots of free hot water in the summer time, and store that water in an aquifer so that it can be extracted in winter and used for heating? I had done some brief calculations and found that, due to the high specific heat of water and to the hydraulics of flow in porous media, it was possible to recover a significant amount of the stored heat, even after several months.

Well, it turns out that back when I was starting to think about using aquifers for seasonal storage of thermal energy, there were some folks in Europe who were designing the first pilot projects. Now, in 2010, the Europeans are about 20 years ahead of the US in the implementation of this technology. While there is one Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage (ATES) system in the US (the project in New Jersey I wanted to visit last year), there are over 850 ATES projects in The Netherlands. For those sites that don’t sit on top of an aquifer, there is an alternate means for seasonal storage and recovery of thermal energy – Borehole Thermal Energy Storage (BTES). These technologies have been widely deployed in Europe (notably The Netherlands and Scandinavia) yet they are almost unheard of here in the US. I see this as a huge potential opportunity, although the challenges are enormous, as I am not only starting a new business, I am of necessity developing an entirely new market in the US.

The concept behind Underground Thermal Energy Storage (UTES) is pretty simple: store winter cold and use it to cool buildings in the summer; store summer heat and use it to warm buildings in the winter. UTES can be combined with other renewables like solar thermal (to heat water in the summer) and wind turbines and PVs to run the mechanical equipment. Its application is highly site-specific and depends on the thermal loads of the structure and the thermal capacity of each site’s subsurface environment. Every installation will be an engineered system. I’m very comfortable with the geosciences aspects of UTES, I have a business partner who is an ace mechanical engineer, and I have European technology partners on my team. UTES scales well, and larger thermal energy users stand to benefit most, so I’ve focused my initial business development efforts on district energy systems.

One common mistake that entrepreneurs make is to become fixated on the technology, whereas the market only really cares about the value that technology can bring. So here’s the value proposition that my company, Underground Energy, LLC, offers:

  • Lower life-cycle costs for heating and cooling buildings and structures than any other alternative;
  • Reduced (or eliminated!) fossil fuel consumption and CO2 emissions; and
  • Positive branding built around innovation and sustainability in building energy systems;

The US sent something like $3 trillion overseas last year for energy, mostly to people who hate us. I think we can set aside the global warming debate for a minute (which has junk science and dubious agendas on both sides of the argument) and agree that it is a matter of national security that the US (and every other country) needs to move toward energy independence. I personally think we should save the oil for fast cars and airplanes :). A Batelle Northwest Labs study found that the US could reduce its total energy consumption by 7% using seasonal thermal energy storage, yet we haven’t even started doing it.

So that’s why I haven’t done much on my GT40 in the last year – I’ve been focused on learning as much as I can about the technology and the business of seasonal thermal energy storage. Now that I’m self employed, I hope to find some time to get working on my GT40 again. In fact, just last week I got the ignition switch and start button wired up.

But my new boss is a slave driver. :D
 
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Mark

Good luck with your endeavor.

Honestly, I never visit the Paddock, let alone consider posting in it, so I can't say what drew me to your post. But, except for the specifics of your new endeavor, it was like I was talking to myself. Your description of your former workplace is nearly identical to how I describe my current employment. Where you said:
...It was to the point where I hated getting up in the morning and dragging myself into the office. I couldn't stand most of the management team, the endless meetings, the mind-numbing processes for process sake, the command-and-control micromanagement mentality, the utter and complete lack of any sort of entrepreneurial spirit. It morphed into a completely different company than the one I joined back in 2002...
I could have been looking in a mirror reading that outloud. Honestly, I don't know how my company is still making a profit and I don't know how long that will continue.

At any rate, I don't want to hijack your thread, but thank you. Why you say? Because as much as a catharsis it must have been for you to write this it was also a catharsis for me to read. In a weird way, knowing others are in a more or less similar situation as myself and are keeping their head above water is a bit of an inspiration to me.

Again, good luck on your new business. I hope it really takes off for you.

Eric
 

Charlie M

Supporter
Congratulations with the career change Mark, I hope it all works out for you.

I'm interested in the economics of this technology. Is it viable for residential applications or just larger commercial sites?

Charlie
 
Thanks for your words of support and encouragement, folks - it means a lot to me.

Eric - you are not alone! Keep your eyes and your mind open; I'm sure you will find a way to improve your work situation. I heard some great words of wisdom the other day: "If you love what you do you'll never have to work again." I am happier, more energized and passionate about what I do than I have been since Reagan was in office. This isn't work - it's fun!

Charlie - I think right now the up-front site characterization and design costs would be unacceptably high for most residential applications. Maybe I should design a carbon-neutral system for Al Gore! That said, I do have an idea that would use seasonal storage in a small way that should be able to achieve significant operating cost savings for an existing GeoExchange heat pump system, even at the residential scale. It's so simple that it's ridiculous, but I think I need to look into the IP side of things before I go blabbing any more about it.
 

Brian Hamilton

I'm on the verge of touching myself inappropriatel
Good luck Mark! Sounds like you're well on your way to starting your own green energy empire, I hope. We have heat pump systems around here that use geothermal heat to heat/cool homes and just circulate coolant through an array of pipes set into the ground. I'm sure this is much more complex, maybe simpler, but that's the vision in my head. LOL I believe making it residentially feasible would make a great market for you as well as you'd sell quite a few systems as opposed to a few large systems for office parks/buildings. I'd love to see this work out for you, man! I wish you all the luck and success in the world.

Laters,

Brian
 
Mark, the decision to go out on your own (rather than look for another employer) takes real guts. Things may be low til it all gets going, but I believe you have done absolutely the right thing. And a business you are obviously passionate about also. You will move forward and never look back. Keep it up.
 
Good Luck Mark,
There was talk here a while back of drawing water from lake Ontario and using it to cool in the summer and heating in the winter. Somewhat like a ground source heat pump. Doing some of the office towers in Toronto. I think if you were to hook up with some of the builders that are doing new enviromentaly effient building process you may have something to offer. That will be the way of the future.
Dave
 
Hi Mark,

Very interesting. Fascinating actually, even for a non energy techie like myself. I have read a few articles in the general subject area - things like using ambient deep ground temps (46???) for a first-stage warming cycle of heating water in residential/commercial spaces in cold climates - I realize what you're working on is much more advanced and promising.

If you have a fully cooked business plan and you're looking for venture capital money then let me know - I spent some years in venture capital and would be happy to shepherd your plan around to a few firms that have a focus on green/clean energy. Venture dollars are starting to flow now, particularly for early stage businesses with a clear path to paying customers.

Great to hear you're moving onto a more challenging professional endeavor. Persist and be ready for some ups and downs!
 

Pete McCluskey.

Lifetime Supporter
Hi Mark, reading your first post reminded me of why I got out of the corporate world and started my own business years ago.
I wish you all the very best of good fortune and success. Bite off more than you can chew and chew like hell.
 

Trevor Booth

Lifetime Supporter
Supporter
Fantastic Mark,
having been involved in the design of borehole drilling rigs some years ago I had a lot of dealings with Hydrogeologists, I know what you are on about,great stuff
 
Bite off more than you can chew and chew like hell.

I couldn't agree with you more. Thirteen years ago I left the corporate world and started my own business with a mortgage and an overdraft. It was hard work, but I've never looked back, and I am now completely unemployable, as I simply could not step back into that world.

I wish you all the best. It will be hard work, but its YOUR work, and that makes it all the more rewarding. GO FOR IT!

All the best,

Graham.
 

Steve Briscoe

Lifetime Supporter
Mark-
Good job. In my opinion, your timing is on target. Our economy is rebasing - just like it did in '83, '93, '01 and now in '10. Except this time the outcome is far less controllable because it's a world wide rebasing. You're lucky to be out of a corporate environment where rebasing will not be controlled and pressure will mount internally.

Take care-
Steve
 
Hi Mark, good luck in your new endeavor!
I too have been on suicide watch for the last year and a half, waiting for the small bank that I have been working for to be shut down by the FDIC and parted out.
Fortunately we were taken over by a much larger and better run bank and they were smart enough to listen to some of our ideas on how to maximize the relationship between the banks and the mortgage arm and now I have to put my money where my mouth is!
The whole thing has revitalized me and I feel that 2010 is going to be a much better year for everybody.
Dave
 
Ten years ago I got whacked from my VP job in the corporate mess. I went right out and started my own company supplying the industry I worked in. I have never regretted it. If I would have stayed, I would be struggling with the meager raises and reducing benefits. I would be stressed out and miserable. I am in the process of retiring now - at least 20 years before I would have in the old business environment. I also have had less stress and have worked less hours. Looking back, I wish I had gotten whacked earlier.

Congratulations to you! Best of luck with your new endeavor. I doubt that you will ever regret the change.

Mike
 
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Mark,
A fascinating concept that has enormous potential, particularly where there's a wide annual temperature range. And the importance of independence from doubtful energy sources is very persuasive too.
I left a large UK defence contractor in 1994. My symptoms were the same as yours - meetings about meetings about meetings and obsession with process over content to the extent that I too had to drag myself into work each day.
I formed my own company on a novel computer concept - at exactly the right time and was fortunate to find success quite quickly. Within 6 years, I paid off the house, bought my '40 and was able to retire early with useful reserves.
So I know how you feel, particularly regarding the excitement of new horizons offered by a concept that you know is right and doing things your own way, for yourself.
Of course, you will stand or fall on the success of your plans, but that should provide a frisson far-removed from the corporate feather bed. If you've done your sums and researched your market, success will come with effort. Be prepared to work 25 hours a day until, suddenly, it will all come together.
Good luck, Mark. You have a lot of people rooting for you all around the world.
Tony
 
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