Herbert Pohl
Heat from Below: The Economics, Geothermal Energy
#17 Herbert Pohl - Heat from Below: The Economics of Geothermal Energy
· 00:48:03
How do you decarbonize a country’s heat supply from the ground up?
In this episode of Campus To Capital, we sit down with Herbert Pohl, Founder & CEO of Deutsche Erdwärme and former Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company, to explore how deep geothermal energy can become a scalable pillar of the energy transition.
We talk about:
- The full life cycle of a geothermal project – from site selection to drilling to operations
- How risk assessments work in multi-million-euro projects with geological uncertainty
- The economics of geothermal development: capital costs, funding models, and policy alignment
- What 16 years at McKinsey taught him about leadership, decision-making, and navigating complexity
- Building interdisciplinary teams that connect engineering, finance, and sustainability
- Lessons from transitioning from consulting to founding a clean energy company
A deep dive into the intersection of energy, finance, and technology and what it takes to make geothermal energy bankable at scale.
Many thanks to Herbert for joining the conversation!