MPR News
Summary
When Kevin Bright looks past the wire fencing and upturned soil in front of Rochester’s City Hall, he sees a greener future. The two geothermal wells being drilled here will eventually provide carbon-free heating and cooling for the city’s headquarters.
“After it’s completed and the project’s done, we’ll have the second city hall in Minnesota that is electrically heated and cooled with geothermal, which is pretty exciting,” he said. The wells are one part of the city’s strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 100 percent over the next three decades.
Rochester’s system is coming online at a time when geothermal options are more efficient and affordable than ever. With advances in technology — and new federal financing options — climate advocates say these so-called “district energy” systems can go a long way in reducing carbon emissions on a large scale.
Downtown St. Paul has long relied on a district energy system that uses numerous fuels and heat sources.
But networks that rely solely on geothermal energy and renewable electricity to heat and cool city buildings have not been widely adopted, largely due to cost.
The Inflation Reduction Act passed about a year ago by Congress aims to tear down those cost barriers, said Dammel.
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