“A community coalition including the City of Framingham, the utility company Eversource Energy and the nonprofit HEET have been selected as one of 11 recipients of the Department of Energy’s Community Geothermal funding initiative.”

The City of Framingham, Eversource Energy, and the nonprofit HEET will receive a $715,000 federal grant to plan the expansion of a networked geothermal system in Framingham, which utilities and the state are evaluating as a pathway to decarbonize natural gas heating. The project was selected as one of 11 recipients of a community geothermal funding program by the US Department of Energy, and the money will allow them to add an additional neighborhood and effectively double the size of the project, which aims to meet 100 percent of heating and cooling needs of connected buildings through geothermal energy. A portion of the funds will also go towards workforce training. It is the first utility-installed geothermal network of its kind in the country.

“The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced 11 communities across 10 states have been selected to design community geothermal heating and cooling systems. Using clean geothermal energy for heating and cooling can help American cities across the country meet their energy needs, drive down costs, create jobs, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

HEET Co-Executive Director Audrey Schulman said thermal energy networks, which use piped water to deliver both heating and cooling, providing a sustainable option that avoids putting the burden of electrification directly onto consumers. The city council allocated $500,000 in PGW’s 2023 capital budget for a feasibility study on networked geothermal.

HEET has advocated the use of networked geothermal as an alternative to replacing some of the aging pipes, as one solution. The city has committed $500,000 for PGW to conduct a networked geothermal pilot project as part of its business diversification plan.

“Ground source heat pumps have been in existence for a while, but actually networking it together with the pipe main we’re going to lay is unique. Yes, it’s a first-of-its-kind operation in the nation,” said Nikki Bruno of Eversource.