Mother Earth and some underground piping can go a long way in reducing the cost and carbon footprint of heating and cooling a building. New ground source-heat pump (GSHP) systems that provide both heat and cooling are more efficient and less expensive, and with oil prices rising, they are becoming more affordable to install.

An ice skating rink in British Columbia is using excess heat from the chillers used to make ice to provide both building heat and hot water, according to an in-depth article from the always illuminating Distributed Energy magazine. Businesses are picking up on the financial advantages of GSHP systems, with the industry growing by 12 percent per year.

While new construction is also tapping into geothermal heat, homeowners have been reticent to retrofit there homes because of having to dig up most of their yard and the high installation cost. But new systems that allow holed to be drilled vertically require much less space and are less costly to install.

Along with solar and wind energy as fossil fuel alternatives, we can expect geothermal energy to go down in cost as technology better exploits this renewable resource.