Joel Poppert, Vice President, Alpine Geothermal Drilling, Denver, CO
Profile Here's what I'd like to accomplish as President of CoGEHPA:
1. To support the Board’s initiative to create a voice for the geoexchange industry by establishing relationships with the Public Utilities Commission and utilities and representing the industry in legislative matters that affect CoGEHPA members. It is imperative that if we are going to see this through that we insure it has both the Board’s commitment financially and intellectually.
2. Work with the Board to create and implement a low cost marking plan that will strategically create maximum exposure for CoGEHPA and its members. My plan would include an overhaul of our web presence, increased media efforts, develop a monthly Geothermal Seminar Series and create a branding campaign for the organization. It is imperative that we increase the value of the membership by making CoGEHPA the “go to” place to find qualified geothermal contractors.
3. Strategically utilize CoGEHPA’s diverse list of contacts to bring depth to our organizations long-term business plan. By creating a sustainable path for the organization, we can create an environment in Colorado where geothermal is considered a viable option for all projects.
I am an IGSHPA Accredited Installer and the Co-Owner of Alpine Geothermal Drilling, a full service geothermal heat exchanger contractor. I am also an experienced geologist, environmental project manager and modern energy advocate. I believe that the success of our industry is dependent on our commitment to innovation, strategy and cooperation. With the right strategy we can create a sustainable market for geothermal that is not dependent on subsidies.
I believe that my passion for and involvement/connection with the sustainability industry is one of the greatest assets I contribute to the Board. I am motivated both by my passion for education and the importance our technology needs to play in this new energy market. CoGEHPA could prove to be the best tool we have available to get geothermal to its tipping point in Colorado!
Vice President
Justin Larsen, Colorado Territory Manager, WaterFurnace, Arvada, CO
Profile I have 16 years of experience in all aspects of the HVAC field. Prior to becoming the Territory Manager of Colorado for WaterFurnace, I was a Vice-President and partner at Camblin Mechanical, Inc. in Atlantic Iowa where I managed the Geothermal and Commercial Service Divisions. Over the years I was heavily involved in growing the geothermal market in southwest Iowa. Having been involved in that market I see huge growth potential for the Colorado market. Camblin Mechanical, Inc. grew to achieve GeoPro status through WaterFurnace.
I have been involved in the sales, design, service, and/or installation of hundreds of geothermal projects. With WaterFurnace I have been privileged to work with contractors on marketing geothermal to consumers. I have also spent significant time with utilities working to promote geothermal heating & cooling and sharing with them the benefits of having geothermal systems as a part of their load.
I would like to assist CoGEHPA in becoming the “Voice of Geothermal” for the long term in Colorado. I would like our organization to set some long term goals and find stable revenues to ensure its future. I believe a large portion of this funding will come from the contractors, distributors, and manufacturers of our association. I would like to see CoGEHPA implement low cost marketing strategies to raise consumer awareness and drive leads to the installing contractors who are members of our organization. The campaign should have tracking tools in place to measure its success. In turn we will have a selling story to offer the future members of our organization.
I also believe CoGEHPA needs to have a voice in the legislature to help create a geothermal friendly environment in Colorado. CoGEHPA should also be the premier organization for geothermal training in Colorado. I would also like to see CoGEHPA create committees to accelerate the growth of our organization. It would allow us to accomplish much more than we can with a once a month meeting. We should have committees for marketing, training, legislative, etc.
Secretary/Treasurer
Craig Watts, Principal/VP, MKK Consulting Engineers Inc., Greenwood Village, CO
Profile I have been in the industry going on 20 years and I believe leadership comes from the top. The reason I am interested in serving on the Board is to help bring the message that geothermal energy is a viable solution for a building’s HVAC system and a major contributor to managing our natural energy resources. I bring a designer perspective to the group. I think it is important to convince the owners, architects and large general contractors that geothermal can be a great long term solution.
I have been involved with energy related design for most of my career. As a Consulting Engineer, I need to be able to propose viable solutions to the owner/architect for their environmental systems. Geothermal energy makes senses. I have been directly involved with specifying/designing many geothermal systems and consequently have a wealth of knowledge of how geothermal energy can be applied successfully. I am an IGSHPA Accredited Installer. Although I don’t directly install the systems I thought it necessary to understand how to correctly identify the right and wrong way for the system to be installed.
Director
Mark Cucarola, Principal/Owner, Platinum Homes LLC, Castle Rock, CO
Profile As a Director I want to be directly involved in furthering the proliferation of geothermal systems in the upper end custom home market. I want to accomplish this through our own custom home building business and by being directly involved in CoGEHPA’s education process of the Industry’s state of the art system applications. Our business is actively involved in designing and building energy efficient custom homes utilizing the latest in building science technology. We strongly encourage all of our customers to incorporate geo-thermal systems in their new home designs.
I have been in the design/build custom home business for 20 years. My company has built over 80 large complex custom homes and completed several multifamily projects from design through entitlements and construction. We are currently completing our second geothermal custom home in a year’s time and are in the design process of 2 more custom homes that will incorporate geothermal systems. As a project manager and directly involved in new home sales, I am very attuned to the market trends of new home construction, customer wish lists & concerns, and current market opportunities/challenges.
Director
Michael Hillesheim, Senior Engineer, National Renewable Energy Lab, Golden, CO
Profile: My work at NREL includes research and analysis of geothermal and energy efficiency (e.g., geothermal heat pumps) technologies, with emphasis on subsurface and non-conventional (e.g., hybrid) applications. I conduct feasibility assessments for a number of government agencies to determine where renewable and efficiency technologies are viable options to solve their energy problems. I have authored a number of reports on topics such as geothermal exploration, low-temperature geothermal applications, and geothermal heat pump deployment feasibility. Prior to NREL, I worked for Sandia National Laboratories as a Senior Member of the Technical Staff leading investigations in water resource characterization and protection and nuclear waste disposal. I wish to serve on the COGEHPA Board because I want to give back, as I have found my interactions with other Members, as well as the seminars, informative and worthwhile. I want to keep these efforts in motion. I think I can bring a slightly different perspective to CoGEHPA that is largely influenced by my work experience at NREL that has focused on R&D, system feasibility analysis, and interactions with federal stakeholders from a variety of agencies. I feel these experiences will add value to CoGEHPA and perspective to CoGEHPA’s mission, as well as lead to collaborative efforts to increase the deployment of geothermal technologies. Finally, I truly believe that geothermal technologies need to and will be an important part of our energy future, and that CoGEHPA can help lead the way in CO and in the geothermal industry.
Director
Terry Proffer, GSHP Designer & Trainer, Major Geothermal, Wheat Ridge, CO
Profile I would like to help maintain the momentum that our organization has built, increasing the recognition of CoGEHPA and its membership with not only customers but with government and utilities. Growing our membership to maintain self-sustaining support is a priority to reach our industry goals. Due to my experience, reputation and time in the industry I can continue to build and strengthen our ties with other industry associations such as GEO and IGSHPA to the benefit of CoGEHPA. CoGEHPA should be a technical resource for its membership, provide facts to consumers, and emphasize that GSHP technology is competitive even without incentives for both residential and commercial markets. Our emphasis should be on GSHP expertise; we should not be associating geoexchange with wind, solar, other energy or conditioning technologies except for reasonable alliances, without conveying a perception that we are dependent on other resources. The direction of our association should be derived primarily from our board and overall membership, with input from diverse points of view. I have been active in the GSHP industry since 1992 and have design experience with more than 15,000 commercial tons throughout North America, United Kingdom, Korea and New Zealand. I am an Accredited IGSHPA Installer, Certified GeoExchange Designer (CGD), member of Rocky Mountain ASHRAE, IGSHPA/NATE Certified Installation Trainer, authorized AEE/IGSHPA CGD Trainer and Certified ClimateMaster trainer.
Director
Mike Ryan, Panterra Energy LLC, Englewood, CO
Profile I am a trades person with experience in project management, sales management, and contracting in mature and emerging markets. My objective is to participate in the overall promotion of geothermal energy usage. I likely come from a different trade than most of those on the board and thus come with few preconceptions and possibly different ideas. My background is not in the HVAC or the geothermal business. But, I have worked in the residential and commercial retrofit as well as the new construction residential markets as both a contractor and in building products manufacturing over the past 27 years. As a Regional Manager for a product manufacturer, I directed the growth of emerging markets throughout the central US.
Director
Dave Schrock, Executive Vice President, Comfort Air Distributing, Denver, CO
Profile I would like to contribute to the growth of ground source heat pumps in the Colorado market. My knowledge in energy efficiency of 40+ years in HVAC would help accomplish this goal. I am currently a Board member with Energy Efficiency Business Coalition and was a prior Board member with E-Star. I was a founding member of Built Green. I also served on the Advisory Board for the National Association of Home Builders developing building guidelines. As Executive Vice President with Comfort Air Distributing, part of my responsibilities include Technical Advisor and Sales Manager for a customer base of over 1,000 companies. I implement all training classes and I teach HVAC to various industries. Over the years I have held various certifications. I have been NATE certified for over 15 years.
Director
Ramon Teran, President, Cayucos Inc., Highlands Ranch, CO
Profile CoGEPHA’s vision of spreading the word on the most efficient HVAC technology available aligns well with my personal beliefs. I am very interested in working with local governments and utility companies to promote geothermal using tax and rebate incentives in order to grow the industry. These programs are needed to compete with other subsidized industries (oil and gas) and to help promote innovation in order to reduce costs and become a sustainable model without government intervention.
During the last 16 years I have worked in the commercial space doing design, project management on design-build projects (ranging up to $20 million in size) and sales for commercial HVAC manufacturers. Although I have not designed a geo-exchange system, I have been involved with selling equipment for these systems and understand it very well. Geothermal systems are one solution for lowering the emissions of CO2 and the potential of global warming. In my perspective, our industry needs to realize that geothermal not only makes economic sense in the lifecycle of the system, but it is one of the systems with the smallest carbon footprint, a consideration every engineer and owner should consider.
