2026 GDA Driller Golden Tricone Award

While the geothermal drilling job and its overall success will be weighed with priority importance, the industry sees its greatest gains when companies innovate to increase safety and efficiency — we encourage demonstrating how your project succeeded in a way that provides the industry with a new approach(es) that safely buoys time- and cost-savings and sustainability.

Criteria - When evaluating each project, the judges will consider exemplary demonstration of the following criteria in delivering geothermal drilling direction, project partnership, and borehole execution:

• Safety
• Efficiency
• Quality
• Ingenuity/Obstacles

1. Company Safety Record - hours worked and near misses submitted or documented.
2. Drilling Timeline & Completion - footage drilled vs timeline permitted. GDA will use an equation that compares days allotted by the project timeline with days required to complete.
3. Project Progress with Restoration - photos of the project, site containment, and project restoration.

4. Project size - residential or urban tight spaces.
5. Project Innovation – difficulty of installation (retrofit vs new), water recovery, impact mitigation, special capabilities to overcome a challenging project.