Dive Brief:
- Five U.S. communities’ construction of community-scale geothermal heating and cooling systems will get more than $35 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Geothermal Technologies Office, according to a Dec. 11 bulletin.
- The selected projects will help decarbonize buildings in Chicago; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Framingham, Massachusetts; Hinesburg, Vermont; and Shawnee, Oklahoma.
- The U.S. has few community-scale geothermal systems compared with other countries, GTO said. It hopes these five projects will help other U.S. communities see how they can leverage energy underground to heat and cool buildings.
Dive Insight:
U.S. building decarbonization advocates are expressing growing excitement about the potential of thermal energy networks to move entire neighborhoods away from burning fossil fuels on-site for heating and cooling. Geothermal networks typically rely on underground pipes and geothermal heat pumps to harness the earth's relatively constant underground temperature to heat and cool buildings.
In April 2023, the DOE announced that it was providing 11 communities with a total of $13 million to design community-scale geothermal systems. Coalitions in those communities selected project sites, assessed the geothermal resources available, conducted feasibility analyses and local engagement, and identified workforce and training needs.
The system sizes and technologies of the five selected projects differ, according to DOE. The city of Ann Arbor applied for $10 million to install its project, while environmental justice and economic development group Blacks in Green applied for roughly the same amount for its planned system in Chicago.
The Framingham, Massachusetts, project, led by clean energy nonprofit Heet, applied for $7.8 million in federal funding, while GTI Energy, a company focused on energy transition solutions, applied for $3 million to build a system in Hinesburg, Vermont. The University of Oklahoma applied for $7 million in federal funding to lead the construction of the Shawnee, Oklahoma, system.
Final funding amounts will be issued once DOE undergoes a negotiation process with each applicant.
Among the challenges to widespread thermal energy network deployment are difficulties in designing “replicable” systems that can be readily customized for specific sites, Zeyneb Magavi, executive director of Heet, told Smart Cities Dive last month. Magavi also cited the steep learning curve for some city planners and other stakeholders in understanding the potential of thermal energy networks.
Correction: This article has been updated to reflect the included funding amounts are what each lead applied for. Final funding amounts will not be determined until DOE undergoes a negotiation process with each applicant.
