Skip to main content

Just In

New Zealand’s Geoheat Breakthrough: Inside the 2026–2027 Action Plan to Scale Low-Carbon Heat Nationwide

New Zealand’s Geoheat Revolution: How Earth Sciences New Zealand and Ara Ake Are Reshaping the Future of Low-Carbon Heat New Zealand is quietly positioning itself at the forefront of one of the most underappreciated but transformative energy transitions in the world: the large-scale adoption of geoheat. While global attention often gravitates toward geothermal electricity, hydrogen, or solar megaprojects, a more immediate and highly practical revolution is unfolding beneath the surface—direct-use geothermal heat under 150°C, now being systematically developed through a coordinated national strategy. The recently released 2026–2027 Geoheat Action Plan marks a pivotal moment in this journey. Developed through a partnership between Earth Sciences New Zealand and Ara Ake, the country’s energy innovation centre, the plan represents a structured attempt to move geoheat from scattered pilot projects into a coordinated, scalable national system. It is not just a research document—it is a depl...

Hot Nest Norway: Geothermal Luxury Carved Inside a Mountain

Hot Nest Norway: The World’s Most Extraordinary Geothermal Spa Resort is Taking Shape Inside a Mountain

Deep in the dramatic Gudbrandsdalen valley in Otta, Norway, something truly groundbreaking (literally) is happening. A former slate quarry is being transformed into Hot Nest Norway – a year-round luxury destination carved directly into the bedrock of the mountain, powered entirely by deep geothermal energy.

This isn’t just another spa. It’s a visionary fusion of raw Norwegian nature, cutting-edge renewable energy, and jaw-dropping architecture that looks like it was designed by a collaboration between Tolkien and Tesla.

What is Hot Nest Norway?

Imagine walking into a mountain and discovering 3,000 m² of luxurious spaces:  
20 uniquely designed hotel rooms  
700 m² of geothermal-heated indoor and outdoor pools (yes, outdoor pools in the Norwegian winter – steaming at +38 °C while snow falls around you)  
A fine-dining restaurant celebrating local produce  
A mining museum telling the story of Otta’s slate heritage  
Panoramic viewpoints that make you feel like you’re floating above the valley  

The entire complex is built using local Otta slate, soapstone, and timber ,materials that have been extracted from this very mountain for centuries. The architecture blends seamlessly with the rugged landscape, creating the impression that the building has grown organically out of the rock itself.

 The Geothermal Heart of the Project

What makes Hot Nest truly revolutionary is its energy system. Norwegian company QHeat (Queensland Heat) is designing and simulating a deep geothermal well field that will provide 100 % of the heating, cooling, and seasonal energy storage for the entire destination.

Working together with drilling experts DHANS Drilling, they are developing a closed-loop geothermal system that taps into the stable high temperatures found several kilometers below the surface. This means:

Zero CO₂ emissions from heating and cooling  
Energy costs that are predictable and extremely low  
The ability to store summer heat for winter use (and vice versa)  
A completely future-proof energy solution that will operate reliably for decades  

This isn’t shallow ground-source heat pumps ,this is deep geothermal at its most ambitious, tailored specifically for a high-end hospitality project in one of the coldest climates on earth.

Sustainability Meets Luxury

Ingrid Tho and the Hot Nest team have set an uncompromising standard: the destination must be profitable, sustainable, and deeply rooted in nature. By combining ancient local materials with 21st-century energy technology, they’re proving that luxury and environmental responsibility don’t have to be at odds.

When it opens, Hot Nest will offer visitors something almost nowhere else on the planet can: the experience of bathing in geothermal-heated pools inside a mountain, surrounded by snow-covered peaks, knowing that every degree of warmth comes from the earth itself , not from burning fossil fuels.

A New Landmark for Norwegian Tourism

Norway already has fjords, northern lights, and stunning design hotels. Hot Nest adds something entirely new: a year-round, geothermal-powered sanctuary built into the living rock of the land.

This is more than a hotel. It’s a statement about what the future of sustainable luxury travel can look like when bold vision meets world-class engineering.

Follow the journey of Hot Nest Norway and QHeat as they literally drill into the future of clean energy and unforgettable experiences.  

If you ever needed proof that the green transition can be beautiful, profitable, and absolutely mind-blowing – here it is, emerging from the heart of a Norwegian mountain.

Hot Nest Norway ,coming soon.  
Get ready to feel the warmth from within the mountain.

Source:Meta

Connect with us: LinkedInX


 

Comments

Hot Topics 🔥

Blowout at Cape Station: Fervo Energy’s First Major Crisis After Blockbuster IPO

Just weeks after a record-breaking IPO, the flagship project of the "geothermal unicorn" faces its first major operational crisis. By : Robert Buluma   Beaver County, Utah – The morning of May 27, 2026, began like any other at the Cape Station construction site in rural Utah. Workers for Fervo Energy, the newly public darling of the renewable energy world, were engaged in the complex task of drilling deep into the Earth’s crust to unlock what the company promised would be the future of 24/7 clean power. But by the afternoon, the routine had turned into a crisis. The site had experienced a blowout—an uncontrolled release of fluid or pressure from a well. For any energy company, a blowout is a serious matter. For Fervo Energy, which had just raised $1.89 billion in a blockbuster Nasdaq debut two weeks prior, it represents an immediate stress test of its technology, its safety protocols, and its $7.7 billion market valuation. While the well has since been contained and no injur...

Eavor Geretsried Geothermal Breakthrough: Inside the Closed-Loop Energy Revolution, Drilling Challenges, and Path to Scalable Clean Power

The Geothermal “Holy Grail” Just Got a Reality Check: Inside Eavor’s Geretsried Breakthrough By: Robert Buluma   May 22, 2026 It’s not every day a deep-tech energy company publishes a detailed technical report that openly documents what went wrong on its flagship project—and still comes out looking stronger. That’s exactly what Eavor Technologies did with its Geretsried geothermal project in Bavaria, Germany. The result is unusually transparent: part technical post-mortem, part validation of a technology many have doubted for years. And the core message is simple. They built it. It works. But it wasn’t smooth. The short version Eavor is trying to solve one of geothermal energy’s hardest problems: how to produce reliable heat and power anywhere, not just in rare volcanic hotspots. Their claim has always been bold: a closed-loop geothermal system that is scalable, dispatchable, low-carbon, and independent of natural reservoirs. Critics have long argued it wouldn’t survive...

GEN Electric Grid Impact Study RFP in Framingham Massachusetts Advances Utility Geothermal Networks

GEN Electric Grid Impact Study RFP Signals a Defining Moment for Geothermal Energy Networks in the United States By: Robert Buluma The United States geothermal sector is entering a new phase, one where geothermal systems are no longer being viewed only as sources of heating and cooling, but increasingly as strategic infrastructure capable of strengthening the electric grid itself. In one of the most important emerging developments in utility-scale thermal network deployment, the Home Energy Efficiency Team (HEET), in partnership with Eversource Gas, has officially launched a Request for Proposals (RFP) for a groundbreaking Electric Grid Impact Study focused on Geothermal Energy Networks (GENs), also referred to as Thermal Energy Networks (TENs). Backed by funding from the U.S. Department of Energy under grant “DE-EE0010662.0002 Home Energy Efficiency Team Utility-Managed Geothermal Pilot in Framingham, Massachusetts,” the initiative represents far more than a local energy pilot. It is...

Germany’s Hidden Heat Rush: Inside the Massive Urban Geothermal Hunt Beneath Erfurt’s Streets

Germany’s Urban Geothermal Gamble: Inside the Massive 3D Seismic Campaign Beneath Erfurt’s Streets by Geofizyka Torun By : Robert Buluma  In the heart of Germany, something extraordinary is happening beneath the sidewalks, apartment blocks, cafés, and busy streets of Erfurt. While most residents move through their daily routines unaware, fleets of heavy vibrotrucks and thousands of seismic receivers have been quietly scanning the Earth below the city in one of Europe’s most ambitious urban geothermal exploration campaigns. The recent completion of a demanding 3D seismic survey campaign by Geofizyka Torun S.A. marks far more than a technical milestone. It represents a glimpse into the future of European energy — a future where cities no longer rely heavily on imported fossil fuels, but instead tap into the immense heat hidden beneath their own foundations. Germany’s geothermal race is accelerating, and Erfurt has suddenly become one of the most fascinating battlegrounds in Europe’...

Ignis H2 Energy and the Mount Augustine Geothermal Breakthrough: How Alaska Is Becoming a Blueprint for Multi-Vector Clean Energy Systems

Ignis H2 Energy and the Mount Augustine Geothermal Breakthrough: Inside Alaska’s Emerging Multi-Vector Energy Frontier By: Robert Buluma   Introduction: A Quiet Deal With Loud Global Implications The energy transition is increasingly being shaped not by isolated power plants, but by integrated energy ecosystems that combine electricity, fuels, minerals, and industrial feedstocks into a single resource base. One of the clearest signals of this shift has emerged from Alaska, where a landmark memorandum of understanding between the State of Alaska and South Korea’s POSCO International has placed the Mount Augustine geothermal project at the center of a multi-sector development vision. While the headlines focus on geopolitics, clean energy expansion, and industrial decarbonization, the deeper story lies in a relatively less publicly visible but strategically important developer: Ignis H2 Energy Inc . Ignis is not just a project developer in this narrative. It is the technical arch...

Eavor steps back from operator role in the Geretsried geothermal project

Eavor at the Crossroads: What Geretsried Really Tells Us About the Future of Closed-Loop Geothermal By Alphaxioms Geothermal Insights | May 13, 2026 For years, Eavor Technologies was the geothermal sector's most talked-about enigma. The company raised hundreds of millions of dollars, attracted backing from heavyweights including BP , Chevron , Helmerich & Payne , and Temasek , and made bold promises about a proprietary closed-loop technology that would quietly revolutionise how humanity extracts heat from the earth. But it rarely said much in public. The secrecy was, to many observers in the geothermal community, a feature rather than a bug — protecting intellectual property, managing competitive intelligence, buying time. Now, Eavor is talking. And what it is saying is worth listening to very carefully. In an exclusive interview published on May 13, 2026, by GeoExpro editor Henk Kombrink, Eavor's new president and CEO Mark Fitzgerald — who took the role in October 2025 ...

MND Completes Landmark Deep Geothermal Drilling Project in Košice, Powering Central Europe’s Clean Heating Future

MND Pushes Central Europe Toward a Geothermal Future with Landmark Košice Project Central Europe has just witnessed a major geothermal breakthrough. Czech energy and drilling giant MND has officially completed the drilling phase of one of the largest geothermal heating projects in Central Europe, marking a decisive moment not only for Slovakia’s energy future, but also for the wider European geothermal sector. Located in the city of Košice, Slovakia’s second-largest city, the ambitious geothermal development demonstrates how deep geothermal energy is rapidly transforming from a niche renewable resource into a strategic pillar of urban energy security, district heating, and industrial decarbonization. The announcement by MND revealed that three deep geothermal boreholes were successfully drilled to depths of up to 3.6 kilometers under difficult geological conditions. Once fully operational, the geothermal system could cover as much as 55% of Košice’s heat consumption — an extraordina...

Globeleq’s 35MW Delay Deepens Kenya Power Rationing Crisis

Globeleq Delays Power Supply: Kenya's Energy Crunch Worsens By Robert Buluma   Published: May 29, 2026 There is an uncomfortable truth settling over Kenya’s electricity sector this week. Just as the country’s industrialists were beginning to breathe a sigh of relief that the worst of the power rationing might be over, a new storm has appeared on the horizon. The British independent power producer, Globeleq, has officially delayed the connection of its 35-megawatt geothermal plant to the national grid. For the average Kenyan who has grown accustomed to the lights flickering off precisely at 6:30 PM, this might sound like just another technical footnote in a long list of energy sector woes. But for those who watch the numbers closely, this is a significant blow. It is a delay that threatens to prolong the agony of scheduled blackouts, pressure Kenya Power’s already strained finances, and expose the fragility of a national grid that is struggling to keep pace with a growing economy....

The Geothermal Breakthrough We’ve Been Waiting For – Introducing the HOT ROCK Act

Unleashing Earth's Inferno: The HOT ROCK Act and the Dawn of Superhot Geothermal Energy Posted by Alphaxioms Geothermal News    Nairobi, February 15, 2026 By: Robert Buluma Imagine standing on the surface of our planet, completely unaware of the roaring furnace miles beneath your feet, a colossal reservoir of heat, forged in the fires of Earth’s creation, waiting patiently to be harnessed. This is not science fiction. It is the very real promise of superhot rock geothermal energy, a breakthrough technology that could completely redefine how we generate power across the globe. On February 13, 2026, Representatives Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) and Mark Amodei (R-NV) introduced the HOT ROCK Act , a bold, bipartisan piece of legislation designed to accelerate the development of this next-generation geothermal frontier. For those of us here in Nairobi, watching the steam vents and hot springs of the Great Rift Valley, this news feels especially personal. Africa already leads the world ...

Rodatherm Energy: The Refrigerant Gambit

By: Robert Buluma   Rodatherm Energy has done something no other geothermal startup has attempted at commercial scale: swapped water for refrigerant in a closed-loop system. The claim is 50% higher thermal efficiency than water-based binary cycles, achieved by circulating a proprietary phase-change fluid through a fully cased, pressurized wellbore. The company emerged from stealth in September 2025 with a $38 million Series A—the largest first venture raise in geothermal history. Lead investor Evok Innovations was joined by Toyota Ventures, TDK Ventures, and the Grantham Foundation. The engineering thesis is elegant. The execution risks are significant. This is an Alphaxioms examination of both. II. The Thermodynamic Distinction Every geothermal company you've covered moves heat using water or steam. Rodatherm moves heat using a fluid that boils and condenses inside the wellbore. In a conventional closed-loop water system (Eavor's model), water circulates as a single-phase liq...