Inside Climate News
Summary
Nearly half a century ago, the U.S. Department of Energy launched a clean energy experiment beneath the University of Minnesota with a simple goal: storing hot water for months at a time in an aquifer several hundred feet below ground.
The idea of the so-called seasonal thermal energy storage was to tuck away excess heat produced in summer, then use it in the winter to warm buildings. Now, 45 years after the first test wells were drilled under the university’s St. Paul campus, one of the first large-scale aquifer thermal energy systems in the nation is being built less than 10 miles from the original test site.
Depending on the specific needs of future tenants, the groundwater could also serve as a thermal battery, storing excess heat in the summer for use in the winter, said Michael Ahern, senior vice president for system development at Ever-Green Energy, the firm designing the heating and cooling system.
“It is the difference between paying a $200 to $300 per month bill, and less than $100,” said Johnson, who is also treasurer of the Saint Paul Port Authority. “That is what we’re striving for.”
“It kind of makes sense to utilize that local resource,” said Rob Thornton, president and CEO of the International District Energy Association, an industry group.
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