When administrators at the rapidly growing University of Colorado Mesa at Grand Junction first explored the use of geothermal energy to heat and cool a new campus building in 2008, they were unsure whether the projected cost savings could be realized quickly enough to make the system work.
“Then we wondered, what if?” said Kent Marsh, CMU vice president of capital planning, sustainability and campus operations. “What if we connect the $1 million drilling rig to another building? If we connect the academic building to the hostel, both of them will need heating at different times of the day.”
Today, CMU’s “geothermal exchange” system heats and cools 70 percent of the 10,000-student campus, transferring heat when needed between buildings and to the ground through heat pumps, cooling towers and underground piping.
The system helps CMU save $1.5 million annually in HVAC costs and more than halve greenhouse gas emissions from campus buildings. Gov. Jared Polis’ administration hailed it as a model for universities and other developments across the country looking for ways to cut emissions.
“It’s a really huge system,” said Will Tour, chief executive of the Colorado Energy Authority. “For structures like these, like college campuses or large corporate campuses, you have a lot of land to put these geo-exchange systems on—these district heating and cooling systems really make sense.”
Tour and March performed Thursday at a virtual event hosted by the Western Governors Association. Polis, who was elected chairman of the organization earlier this year, has made geothermal power the focus of a year-long WGA policy effort.
The Warm Under Our Feet initiative will “develop important discoveries about geothermal energy applications, land-use planning and market barriers in the west” and present a report at next year’s WGA annual meeting in Boulder.
Polis, who attended CMU GeoExchange last month, kicked off his social media policy initiative with a video of the “geothermal shuffle” dance and kicked off his first-ever meeting with Republican gubernatorial contender Heidi Garner. debate as an innovative solution.
What happens when it’s warm underfoot? We make Geo Shuffle! #GoGeo pic.twitter.com/8WnVxb8hSK
“We support all forms of energy in the great state of Colorado,” Polis said. “It’s about making sure we can have a sustainable energy future.”
At a basic level, geothermal heating and cooling systems work by transferring heat between a building and the ground. Like many clean energy technologies, they require significant upfront costs—mostly associated with drilling and laying pipes that can run hundreds of feet underground—but they are cheaper in the long run, especially when installed on a large scale.
“If you look at the system and how it has performed over the years, you are way ahead,” Marsh said. “When we started with one drilling field, the payback was about 20 years. We have since reduced that to 12 years.”
A small number of homes in Colorado and across the country use ground source heat pumps (also known as ground source heat pumps) for heating and cooling. A geothermal HVAC system for the Colorado State Capitol was also completed in 2013.
Earlier this year, lawmakers in the General Assembly passed two pieces of legislation aimed at encouraging geothermal energy, including a new $12 million geothermal grant fund and a bill that would make what Tour calls “the equivalent of a public solar garden.” larger projects.
The tour points to the world’s revolutionary transition to clean energy, to the job-creation potential of geothermal energy, which is helping to offset losses in other industries, including the fossil fuel industry. Many geothermal projects require the same equipment and skills as oil and gas drilling.
“A lot of geothermal energy has to do with how you drill deep wells,” he said. “I think there are a lot of job opportunities for oil and gas workers as the energy transition moves forward.”
The Policy WGA program is sponsored by several major players in the oil and gas industry, including Chevron, BP and Halliburton.
The largest geothermal projects are “communal scale” developments that use heat to generate large amounts of electricity for the grid. Such projects require favorable geology to extract heat from deep underground—5,000 to 10,000 feet rather than the 500 feet needed for CMU’s geological exchange.
Most suitable locations for utility-scale geothermal projects are in the Western states, according to a study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The first such project was completed in 1960, and today both California and Nevada generate large amounts of electricity from geothermal power plants.
Tour said that while wind and solar are likely to remain the “workhorses of the energy transition”, generating 80% or more of future electricity demand, other technologies such as geothermal will play a role in creating a fully carbon-neutral grid.
“When it comes to clearing the last 15 percent of the grid, you really start to need other resources,” Tur said. “Geothermal energy really offers the opportunity to provide zero-carbon electricity generation around the clock.”
When administrators at the rapidly growing University of Colorado Mesa Grand Junction first explored the use of geothermal energy to heat and cool a new campus building in 2008, they were unsure whether the projected cost savings could be realized quickly enough to make the system operational.
“Then we wondered, what if?” said Kent Marsh, CMU vice president of capital planning, sustainability and campus operations. “What if we connect the $1 million drilling rig to another building? If we connect the academic building to the hostel, both of them will need heating at different times of the day.”
Today, CMU’s “geothermal exchange” system heats and cools 70 percent of the 10,000-student campus, transferring heat when needed between buildings and to the ground through heat pumps, cooling towers and underground piping.
The system helps CMU save $1.5 million annually in HVAC costs and more than halve greenhouse gas emissions from campus buildings. Gov. Jared Polis’ administration hailed it as a model for universities and other developments across the country looking for ways to cut emissions.
“It’s a really huge system,” said Will Tour, chief executive of the Colorado Energy Authority. “For structures like these, like college campuses or large corporate campuses, you have a lot of land to put these geo-exchange systems on—these district heating and cooling systems really make sense.”
Tour and March performed Thursday at a virtual event hosted by the Western Governors Association. Polis, who was elected chairman of the organization earlier this year, has made geothermal power the focus of a year-long WGA policy effort.
The Warm Under Our Feet initiative will “develop important discoveries about geothermal energy applications, land-use planning and market barriers in the west” and present a report at next year’s WGA annual meeting in Boulder.
Polis, who attended CMU GeoExchange last month, kicked off his social media policy initiative with a video of the “geothermal shuffle” dance and kicked off his first-ever meeting with Republican gubernatorial contender Heidi Garner. debate as an innovative solution.
What happens when it’s warm underfoot? We make Geo Shuffle! #GoGeo pic.twitter.com/8WnVxb8hSK
“We support all forms of energy in the great state of Colorado,” Polis said. “It’s about making sure we can have a sustainable energy future.”
At a basic level, geothermal heating and cooling systems work by transferring heat between a building and the ground. Like many clean energy technologies, they require significant upfront costs—mostly associated with drilling and laying pipes that can run hundreds of feet underground—but they are cheaper in the long run, especially when installed on a large scale.
“If you look at the system and how it has performed over the years, you are way ahead,” Marsh said. “When we started with one drilling field, the payback was about 20 years. We have since reduced that to 12 years.”
A small number of homes in Colorado and across the country use ground source heat pumps (also known as ground source heat pumps) for heating and cooling. A geothermal HVAC system for the Colorado State Capitol was also completed in 2013.
Earlier this year, lawmakers in the General Assembly passed two pieces of legislation aimed at encouraging geothermal energy, including a new $12 million geothermal grant fund and a bill that would make what Tour calls “the equivalent of a public solar garden.” larger projects.
The tour points to the world’s revolutionary transition to clean energy, to the potential of geothermal energy in terms of job creation, helping to offset losses in other industries, including fossil fuels. Many geothermal projects require the same equipment and skills as oil and gas drilling.
“A lot of geothermal energy has to do with how you drill deep wells,” he said. “I think there are a lot of job opportunities for oil and gas workers as the energy transition moves forward.”
The Policy WGA program is sponsored by several major players in the oil and gas industry, including Chevron, BP and Halliburton.
The largest geothermal projects are “communal scale” developments that use heat to generate large amounts of electricity for the grid. Such projects require favorable geology to extract heat from deep underground—5,000 to 10,000 feet rather than the 500 feet needed for CMU’s geological exchange.
Most suitable locations for utility-scale geothermal projects are in the Western states, according to a study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The first such project was completed in 1960, and today both California and Nevada generate large amounts of electricity from geothermal power plants.
Tour said that while wind and solar are likely to remain the “workhorses of the energy transition”, generating 80% or more of future electricity demand, other technologies such as geothermal will play a role in creating a fully carbon-neutral grid.
“When it comes to clearing the last 15 percent of the grid, you really start to need other resources,” Tur said. “Geothermal energy really offers the opportunity to provide zero-carbon electricity generation around the clock.”
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