Whisper Valley is a peek into what the future could look like. The development outside Austin taps into natural heat deep underground to run heating and cooling systems for the planned 7,500 homes and other buildings.
The sweeping community in the Austin, Texas, suburb of Manor is filled with modern homes, small manicured lawns, quiet streets, and rooftops outfitted with solar panels. Hidden beneath it is a network of pipes and man-made reservoirs that heat and cool hundreds of households via geothermal technology — a source that currently provides less than 1% of the U.S. electrical demand.
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