US Campuses Dig for Geothermal Energy

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Geothermal just makes sense, where it makes sense. With only 5 buildings done out of the planned-for 18 to be upgraded to geothermal, the Theological Seminary in New York City already saved $200,000 in energy costs in the last year. A lot of schools, like Ball State University in Indiana, are building geothermal. BSU, with the charge led by SCUPer Bob Koester, is upgrading all 45 of its buildings and will save $2M per year. And dozens of schools are collected their portion of hundreds of millions of dollars in related federal grants, for construction and research.

So far this year, the Department of Energy has announced $400 million in grants to advance geothermal projects like those under way on a handful of campuses.

Geothermal technology has been around for decades, it works and it's increasingly affordable. At colleges that must maintain dozens of large buildings, the savings are magnified.

Those involved in the decision to pursue geothermal technology say they wanted to use less coal-fired power, although the schools also had to save money to justify the move.