#17 Dr. Herbert Pohl - Founder & CEO of Deutsche Erdwärme on Geothermal Energy, Project Risk & the Economics of the Energy Transition
Description
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!
Presented by our partner Timeless Investments.
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