PanTerra Energy LLC.

• Author: Peterson, Eric
• Position: COMPANY

INITIAL LIGHT BULB Then in the roofing business, Mike Ryan had lunch with Tom Myers, a colleague in the construction management, in 2011. "I was looking to do something different," Ryan recalls. "It sounds cliche and silly, but we scribbled on a couple of napkins and came up with a general idea of what to do."

That general idea became PanTerra Energy: a geothermal-heating company that operated like a utility, akin to a similar strategy that has been embraced by the solar industry.

"Geothermal is the ultimate renewable resource," Ryan says. Underground piping, a.k.a. the loop field, absorbs heat in winter and dissipates it in summer, making for a more efficient and stable heating system.

Ryan says geothermal is three to five times more efficient than stand-alone gas-fired heaters and can result in up to 60 percent savings on heating costs. "It's a very efficient way to heat and cool your structure," he says. "It will save you money over time."

Ryan is now PanTerra's president and Myers serves as VP.

IN A NUTSHELL "One of the problems with geothermal is the upfront cost," Ryan says. "We're putting the loop field in the ground with no up-front cost." PanTerra maintains ownership of the system and sells access back to the property owner or the tenants via a "thermal purchase agreement" modeled after power purchase agreements that are in vogue in the solar industry.

Ryan says he is still working out the kinks of the model and hopes to...