Kathy Hannun, founder of residential geothermal company Dandelion Energy, discusses why the company transitioned from third-party subcontractors to direct full-time installation crews.
0:00 / 0:26exact quote · 26.3s
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“It's true that having a model where you're insourcing the labor is more capital intensive, but the economics of each install were also much better. So it ended up being a financial net positive for the company, even though it did require us to, yeah, raise the money we would need to Lease the warehouses and the vans and that type of thing.”
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More from Kathy Hannun
AssertionContradicted
Geothermal cuts home heating operating costs to one-fifth of fossil fuels
“If you look at, for example, in the Midwest, comparing using a fuel to using geothermal, your operating costs, so how much you have to actually spend to heat your home, it's maybe a fifth with geothermal. It's similar in the Northeast, and emissions-wise is si…”
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“Whereas if you invest in putting in ground loops, and we can talk a little bit more about what that entails, but if you invest in that infrastructure so that you can access all of that free heating energy that's already in your yard, then you can draw on it es…”
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Google X targets software moonshots requiring massive upfront capital investments
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Kathy HannunJun 8, 2023▶ 10:25Tapping the heat beneath your feet with Kathy Hannun of Dandelion Energy
Insight
Hannun: Operationally intensive geothermal was a better fit as a startup than Google X project
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Kathy HannunJun 8, 2023▶ 11:08Tapping the heat beneath your feet with Kathy Hannun of Dandelion Energy
AssertionSupported
Hannun: Dandelion's financed geothermal was cash flow positive versus fuel oil
“We launched with a financing option. So from the beginning, homeowners that signed up with us
Would come out ahead. Like, you could come out cash flow positive against fuel oil”
Kathy HannunJun 8, 2023▶ 15:03Tapping the heat beneath your feet with Kathy Hannun of Dandelion Energy
Insight
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“And this business is all about throughput. So if you have your rigs and your people and like all of your assets constantly working to put in systems, then you're able to amortize that overhead over many, many, many more systems, and the cost is much, much lowe…”
Kathy HannunJun 8, 2023▶ 20:58Tapping the heat beneath your feet with Kathy Hannun of Dandelion Energy
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