Vermont’s first neighborhood-scale geothermal project is expected to break ground this summer as part of an affordable housing development, providing what developers hope is a blueprint for cost-effective, all-electric new construction in the Green Mountain State and beyond.
“We are decarbonizing and providing the natural energy of the earth to heat and cool our buildings,” said Amy Demetrowitz, chief operating officer of Champlain Housing Trust, one of the nonprofit developers behind the project. “The model is as awesome and as simple as that.”
Across the country, states with ambitious climate goals are looking for ways to cut emissions by weaning their buildings off natural gas and oil heat. Geothermal loops have emerged as a promising solution. These systems use emissions-free electric heat pumps to transfer thermal energy into and out of the earth, and deliver it to multiple households — not unlike pipes carrying water to homes across a neighborhood.
In 2024, utility Eversource launched a geothermal network in Framingham, Massachusetts, that includes some 140 retrofitted buildings; an expansion that will double the network’s size is in development. Work is underway in New Haven, Connecticut, on a geothermal system that will serve the city’s historic train station as well as about 1,000 units of public housing planned nearby.
