The geothermal energy revolution is already well underway in Framingham, Massachusetts, where power company Eversource Energy has commissioned the United States' first networked geothermal neighborhood operated by a utility.
An article by Grist, republished by the Guardian, recently made the compelling case for this type of home heating and cooling to become the new norm, as "there's a massive battery right under your feet."
Geothermal heating systems use the stable temperatures just below ground to efficiently exchange temperatures, heating or cooling above-ground homes as necessary. These systems are much more energy-efficient than other heating and cooling systems — such as gas furnaces, which emit lots of planet-overheating air pollution, or air conditioners, which burn through massive amounts of electricity.
Though the upfront costs of geothermal systems can be quite high, the amounts that users save on their energy bills add up quickly — and you can get a big discount on many of these systems by claiming tax credits available through the Inflation Reduction Act.
The Grist article estimated that if geothermal systems were deployed nationally, they could virtually eliminate one-third of the planet-overheating air pollution produced in the U.S. every year. Even better, the more geothermal systems that are installed, the easier it will become to install more.
"In the end, what we would like is if the gas utilities become thermal utilities," Audrey Schulman, executive director of the nonprofit climate solutions incubator HEETlabs, told Grist. "Each individual, shared loop can be interconnected, like Lego blocks, to grow bigger and bigger."
"If the U.S. is going to properly decarbonize, the home of tomorrow could ditch natural gas and instead use a heat pump to tap into the air or the earth itself as a natural battery. The energy's there — it's always been there — now it's just a matter of realizing its full potential," the article concluded.
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