Drilling season 2026 — what we learned.

1. Geocooling — from niche to standard request

Until 2024, geocooling was an add-on feature for most owner families. In 2026 it's different: for roughly a third of our new installations, passive cooling via the probe is the default from the first conversation. The hot summers have left their mark. Anyone planning a geothermal system today wants the cool-effect in summer too.

And rightly so. Geocooling regenerates the soil, extends the system's lifespan and costs almost nothing in operation (only the circulation pump runs). A win-win expansion that we're happy to size.

2. Permits are getting slower — but more thorough

In several cantons, the permitting timelines for drilling notifications visibly lengthened in 2026. What used to take three to four weeks now takes six to eight in some cantons. The reason: cantons inspect groundwater protection zones and karst areas considerably more carefully than before.

For owner families that means: start earlier. Anyone hoping to pull heat from the ground in winter 2026 should not delay the permitting phase to late summer.

3. New geo-efficiency standard

In March 2026 an update of the SIA-384/6 recommendations was published. Focus: more precise sizing in heterogeneous geologies — with a newly defined safety margin for probe-field geometries. For most single-family-home projects, little changes; for larger systems (apartment blocks, sites) the design becomes somewhat more conservative.

We've been applying the new standard since early April. More probe metres at the same heat load — roughly 5–8 % on average. Less margin for the owner, but more robustness over the system's lifetime.