It hit me during the opening ceremony of the World Geothermal Congress, as I witnessed 2,000 geothermal professionals from 88 countries rapidly shifting the landscape of adopting geothermal power generation as the foundation of the energy transition: Geothermal Exchange is the Generation X of the entire geothermal ecosystem.

Gen X and Geo X are the bridge. We are the generation that grew up roughnecking and mud logging on analog iron, only to be tasked with utilizing that low-cost iron to harness shallow, low-risk thermal energy resources. We are the latchkey kids of neighborhood Thermal Energy Networks, caught between the carbon-heavy legacy of our fathers and venture-capital-fueled businesspeople seeking to profit from equitable heating and cooling—quickly followed by the theoretical tech dreams of the generation coming up behind us.

Gen X is famously the forgotten generation; we are used to being ignored while Boomers and Millennials take up all the oxygen in the room. Geo X is exactly the same. In the broader energy transition, we are the forgotten technology, yet we are the ones making the most immediate, scalable impact. While the world argues over nuclear baseloads and harnessing Old Faithful at Yellowstone, Geo X puts its head down and gets the work done.

For fifty years, we called our work "closed-loop systems," "shallow geothermal," or "low-temp geothermal." But today, the broader energy transition has hijacked our identity. Alternative power generation is co-opting our terminology to soften the image of their big-brother, high-stakes, super-hot, deep-drilling projects. Amid the lightning-fast pace of innovation in geothermal power generation, it is time we draw a line in the sand and claim our identity.

Just like Generation X, we have taken the tools, the quiet competence, and the subsurface knowledge of the past, and we are fighting for our rightful place in a new, fast-moving technological landscape. We have built a low-risk, high-reward solution that permanently decarbonizes the grid. It is time we started proudly calling ourselves Geo X.

Don't Petro My Geo X

As the energy transition accelerates, a new wave of traditional oil and gas professionals is entering the geothermal space. Many are incredible allies—bringing valuable drilling expertise, serious logistical muscle, and a genuine desire to collaborate and scale our industry. We welcome them.

But there is also a vocal subset arriving with a very different agenda. Instead of taking the time to learn the nuances of what we do, they are trying to profit from Geo X by creating fear and misinformation about our traditional, proven methods. They look at our shallow boreholes and closed loops and try to inject them with petroleum-industry hubris. They bring an extractive mindset, pushing us to over-engineer projects and over-capitalize operations, so that they can sell us their expensive solutions.

Let's get one thing straight right now: we are not a bunch of Frack Boys. We don't need the entire patch and massive footprints to prove our technology works. The truth is, Geo X systems are truly a renewable cycle: heating and cooling exchange with the earth. Thermal power generation, by contrast, is fundamentally an extractive process—pulling heat and liquid permanently from the subsurface to spin a turbine.

Yet, these bad actors attempt to claim the absolute mantle of "geothermal," leaving us to defend the reality, safety, and superiority of our thermal exchange work. To the genuine partners, we are glad you are here. But to those trying to manufacture fear to capture our market, we say: don't petro my geo.

Wrapping heads around the notion of Geo X, hasn't been as hard as these hats to understand, but mass appeal is still a slow crawl.
Photo: Silvia Brazzoduro via Unsplash

The First to Walk Away

Generation X drillers inherited the rotary rigs and mud pumps, learning our trade in an era of deep, high-pressure extraction. Over twenty years ago, I stood with 200 interns in a Houston auditorium listening to BP, Shell, and Exxon brass preach the necessity of renewable energy. But as George Mitchell sold the dream of fracturing shale, that corporate symbiosis was quickly dissolved in favor of the lucrative unconventional gas boom.

When the downturn hit, many professionals fled to mining or construction. I took my mud kit and experience to a massive 3,600-borehole geothermal exchange project at Ball State University.

But we weren't the first to walk away from fossil fuels. We followed the geothermal exchange pioneers of the late 70s and 80s at Oklahoma State University. Long before ESG mandates, they saw the inherent dangers of deep extraction and chose a smarter path: doubling down on the reliable, constant temperature of the shallow ground.

The Mechanics of Geo X: Ground to Grid

The risks of deep hydrothermal generation are ongoing realities. You only need to look at recent, highly publicized deep-drilling incidents to understand the volatility of chasing extreme temperatures at depth. Although proponents often argue that geothermal blowouts are less dangerous than those from hydrocarbon drilling, there will always be an imminent risk when working with extreme hydrothermal pressure, induced seismicity, and the potential for massive mechanical failure. It is a high-stakes gamble.

Geo X traded that gamble for low-risk certainty. We partner with the earth rather than extracting from it. By drilling precise boreholes, we install closed-loop systems that harness the earth's steady ambient temperature—warming buildings in winter with minimal use of fossil fuels, and using the cool earth as an infinite heat sink in summer.

As global temperatures rise, this provides equitable cooling to communities that cannot afford the volatility of high electric bills from traditional HVAC systems. By utilizing the ground, Geo X has the proven capability to reduce peak electrical demand by up to 40%. To borrow a line from the quintessential philosopher of our generation, Bart Simpson, we are literally helping the grid and our communities "chill out, man."

This low-risk approach allows Geo X to empower the dream of Thermal Energy Networks (TENs). Homes in Framingham, Massachusetts, are now connected to the first-in-the-nation utility-owned network. By connecting entire communities to shared ambient temperature loops, the thermal waste of one building becomes fuel for another. As total electrification pushes aging transmission lines to their breaking point, Geo X bypasses the transmission problem entirely. We act as a massive thermal battery, slashing the kilowatts required to heat and cool our built environment.

Despite our proven reliability, we operate in a noisy room obsessed with "geothermal anywhere." Flashy startups pouring billions into Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) are actively co-opting our vocabulary. Because the public favors our safety profile, they label their deep, high-pressure extraction as "closed loop" or "advanced low-temp" to capture funding and goodwill.

A Call to the Next Generation

We cannot let the extractive generation of the industry steal the identity of the regenerative exchange side. We are the pragmatic reality. We aren't waiting for technology to drill magma. We are deploying right now, using generational expertise to decarbonize communities block by block.

To the young engineers and newly minted drillers: this is what a sustainable transition looks like. It isn't about erasing the past; it's about evolving it. Geo X transformed the carbon-heavy legacy of the oil patch into a low-risk solution to our demand-side energy crisis.

Now, we are preparing to hand the iron to you. From one Geo Xer to you, heed these words.

Learn the history. Respect the OSU pioneers. Study the well logs and master the mechanics of the true closed loop. But most importantly, recognize the power of the pragmatic path and be unapologetic. We are Geo X! Stop letting Frack Boys borrow your credibility one internet blog at a time. Call it what it is. Take the foundation of Geo X, respect the generation that built it, and help us scale it everywhere.