Utility and services company Eversource has officially launched a networked geothermal pilot project in Framingham, Massachusetts. A first-of-its-kind project in the United States, the pilot project is designed to explore whether a geothermal network can be used in combination with traditional energy sources like natural gas or heating oil.
The project was first announced in late 2022 and proposed to build a centralized heating network drawing heat from vertical underground pipes. This will run through main lines in the street will supply service lines to each home or business. It broke ground in mid-2023 and subsequently started drilling after about two months.
The launch event for the project was held at the Framingham Public Schools central office on Normandy Road, just in front of the pump house for the geothermal system.
How the system works
The system consists of a one-mile loop of pipes that run through houses, apartments, commercial buildings, a fire station, and a community college. A water glycol solution will circulate through this loop, drawing heat from 88 boreholes that have been drilled to depths of approximately 600-700 feet. Approximately 125 customers, previously dependent on gas furnaces, will be connected to the new system.
The temperature in subsurface remains at about 55 °F (12.8 °C) throughout the year, thus providing heating during winter and cooling during the summer. Heat from the boreholes will provide the input for a geothermal heat pump system that tend to be more efficient than “air source” heat pumps.
Gaining customer acceptance
To get customers on board for the project, Eversource offered special deals for the participants. One measure was to charge the customers of Eversource at large for the costs of switching from gas furnaces to heat pumps for the pilot participants, thus lessening the cost per customer for major expenses such as heat pump equipment and electric panel upgrades.
Eversource set the customer cost of tapping into the geothermal network at only $10 per month. The utility company expects participating customers to benefit from a decrease of about 20% in their monthly energy bills, as well as 60% reduction in carbon emissions.
The next step will be for Eversource to evaluate the performance of the system over two full heating and cooling seasons. This data will be used to evaluate parameters such as technology performance, costs, environmental benefits, and customer acceptance.
“We feel like we sort of won the house lottery with the project,” commented Eric Mauchan, one of the pilot customers whose house is on the southwest corner of the project.
“This is the first of its kind in the United States,” said Joseph Nolan, CEO of Eversource. “I’m very, very proud of that. But this could not have happened without the collaboration that took place between all of the partners. Whether it’s the city, whether it’s the state, they got on the journey with us. We collaborated and today we are here with 140 customers that are going to interconnect to this new geothermal system.”
Source: Canary Media, Metro West Daily News, and Eversource MA via Twitter
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