Colorado Sun
Summary
The drilling rig set up shop on a grass patch in downtown Carbondale, facing the community center and not far from a community garden, but this rig wasn’t searching for oil and gas — it was looking for heat.
The geothermal system would provide at least 50% of the heating and cooling for the area, which includes the community center, a town administration building, the high school, a library, 20 townhouses and 20 condominiums.
“This is a chance to tie together the heating and cooling of a variety of types of buildings in one district,” said Jon Fox-Rubin, innovation manager for Clean Energy Economy for the Region, a Carbondale-based nonprofit promoting rural clean energy projects.
The Carbondale project combines two long-standing heating ideas with a newer one — heat pumps.
“This is the fifth generation of district heating and it is really efficient compared to previous generations,” said Xin Jin, a National Renewable Energy Laboratory researcher advising the Carbondale project.
District heating, using a central source to heat an area, dates to the Roman Empire, while tapping into a geothermal source was first done in the French village of Chaudes-Aigues in 1332. The town, its name meaning “hot water” in the regional language of Occitan, still claims some fame for its therapeutic hot springs.
The first district heating system in the U.S. was launched in 1877 and the Denver City Steam Heating Co. started operations in 1880. Xcel Energy still operates the steam system today.
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