{"id":505,"date":"2020-02-17T22:56:09","date_gmt":"2020-02-17T22:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/norwichobserver.com\/?p=505"},"modified":"2020-02-17T23:03:53","modified_gmt":"2020-02-17T23:03:53","slug":"think-big-norwich-why-not-community-geothermal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/norwichobserver.com\/index.php\/2020\/02\/17\/think-big-norwich-why-not-community-geothermal\/","title":{"rendered":"Think Big Norwich: Why Not Community Geothermal?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Think big concept, light bulb sketch, vector illustration<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps,Town officials are not thinking big enough with their geothermal proposal for Tracy Hall on the ballot for Town Meeting. Imagine, instead, a community geothermal project, available to homes, churches, and businesses within a couple of blocks of Tracy Hall. Talk about a reduction in carbon footprint! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

West Union, Iowa<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

It has been done before. The city of West Union, Iowa, with a population of about 2,500, completed such a project in 2014. (H\/T Eva Rosenbloom!) The wells, “all underneath the main square, are connected by a loop that\u2019s ready to provide geothermal heating and cooling to about 60 businesses within about three blocks of the main square,” said a 2014 news report in Energy News Network<\/a>. “The city managed to build the system with no local tax funds. The roughly $2 million price was covered mostly with a $1 million federal Department of Energy grant and a $500,000 Environmental Protection Agency grant.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Norwich, Vermont <\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Selectboard member John Langhus is an enthusiastic proponent of the community geothermal concept. At one Selectboard meeting, he suggested that wells could be sunk on the Green.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the Town Facilities Working Group<\/a> did not consider this approach. Mike Davey of Energy Efficient Investments (EEI)** downplayed the idea in his presentation to the Selectboard on January 15. At about 49 minutes in on the CATV video<\/a>, he wondered whether businesses would want to be customers and whether the Town wanted to a public utility. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the latter point, the Norwich Fire District is in essence a public utility providing water to “approximately 310 homes and 20 commercial businesses<\/a>” in the Village. Moreover, West Union, Iowa contracted out the task of operating the system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who would be customers? Hard to say without asking. However, I doubt community geothermal will happen if the Town does not play a leadership role. Ignoring the community geothermal option is one reason I think the $2 million bond article is premature and rushed<\/a>. (Future blog post likely.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once Tracy Hall has its own stand-alone geothermal system, the Town is gone as a major proponent (and customer) of a community geothermal project. In addition, government grant opportunities might be lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to Board member Langhus, another resident expressed support for community geothermal in an email in the Selectboard packet for January 22<\/a>. One more person and we have a committee!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was this email that alerted me to the Iowa project. An article by Jeff Geerts of the Iowa Economic Development Authority describes in detail the West Union decision making process. His article How the Town of West Union Built a Transformational Geothermal Project<\/a> appears on the website Meeting of the Minds<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

** This is a spec project for EEI. It won’t get paid for the energy audit unless Norwich goes forward on the project described for voters in the bond article on the March 3 ballot.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contact me at norwichobserver[AT]gmail.com.<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Perhaps,Town officials are not thinking big enough with their geothermal proposal for Tracy Hall on the ballot for Town Meeting. Imagine, instead, a community geothermal project, available to homes, churches, and businesses within a couple of blocks of Tracy Hall. Talk about a reduction in carbon footprint! West Union, Iowa It has been done before. The city of West Union, Iowa, with a population of about 2,500, completed such a project in 2014. (H\/T Eva Rosenbloom!) The wells, “all underneath Continue reading Think Big Norwich: Why Not Community Geothermal?<\/span>→<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":514,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2-million-bond-for-geothermal","category-geothermal"],"yoast_head":"\nThink Big Norwich: Why Not Community Geothermal? - Norwich Observer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/norwichobserver.com\/index.php\/2020\/02\/17\/think-big-norwich-why-not-community-geothermal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Think Big Norwich: Why Not Community Geothermal? - Norwich Observer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Perhaps,Town officials are not thinking big enough with their geothermal proposal for Tracy Hall on the ballot for Town Meeting. Imagine, instead, a community geothermal project, available to homes, churches, and businesses within a couple of blocks of Tracy Hall. Talk about a reduction in carbon footprint! West Union, Iowa It has been done before. The city of West Union, Iowa, with a population of about 2,500, completed such a project in 2014. (H\/T Eva Rosenbloom!) 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