US Geothermal Tax Credits in 2026: What Is Actually Still Alive After OBBBA For an industry that spent more than a decade building financial models around a stable federal incentive structure, 2026 has been a year of whiplash. The 30% federal geothermal tax credit that developers and homeowners built forecasts around is gone in one form and still alive in another, and even the IRS’s own public guidance has been confusing enough to trigger uncertainty across the market. That confusion is not a minor clerical issue. It is shaping investment decisions, contractor sales pitches, homeowner timelines, and project finance assumptions right now. If you work in geothermal, the key question is no longer whether federal incentives exist, but which incentive applies, to which project type, and under what ownership structure. The law that changed the timeline To understand where things stand in 2026, you have to start with the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which created a long runway for clean e...
Revolutionizing Lithium Production: Vulcan Energie Ressource GmbH Wins the Ruggero Bertani European Geothermal Innovation Award 2024 By Robert Buluma Offenburg, March 1, 2024 – The European Geothermal Energy Council (EGEC) proudly announces Vulcan Energie Ressourcen GmbH as the recipient of the esteemed Ruggero Bertani European Geothermal Innovation Award 2024. This accolade celebrates Vulcan Energie Ressourcen GmbH's groundbreaking project, the Lithium Extraction Optimization Plant (LEOP), a revolutionary endeavor set to transform sustainable lithium production in Europe. Introducing LEOP: A Game-Changer in Lithium Extraction LEOP represents a pioneering initiative, heralding the inaugural production unit to extract lithium from geothermal sources in an eco-friendly manner. Operational since 2023, this innovative plant, situated in Europe, achieves an impressive Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 7/8. With an annual output of 40 tons of green lithium hydroxide, LEOP has th...