Massachusetts city to pilot geothermal heating network

Basic geothermal heating and cooling network (source: YouTube screenshot, Eversource)

A small neighborhood in the City of Framingham in Massachusetts will be site of a pilot project for a networked geothermal heating system. The pilot will be implemented by utility and services company Eversource and will through two heating and cooling sessions. Construction is scheduled to begin in late 2022.

Eversource will install 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.

The pilot program was approved by the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities and will run a route passing through 45 buildings, about 30 of which are residential. The utility company will pay for the cost of building and installing the geothermal system and the equipment to be installed in the homes and businesses, while participants will pay a low fixed monthly fee for access to the geothermal network.

Framingham was selected as the site of the pilot project as it has a relatively dense urban environment where there is diverse cross-section of income levels and utility use. If successful, the use of networked geothermal heating could be expanded  or replicated elsewhere to provide clean and reliable heating and cooling. The success of the pilot will be evaluated on the following factors:

• Cost to install and operate
• Benefits to customers
• Customer feedback
• Reduction to emissions
• Possible billing structures
• Expandability

Source: City of Frammingham and Eversource