Massachusetts state house allocates $5M of ARPA funds to networked geothermal research
At the start of 2022, HEET received the exciting news that $5 million of Massachusetts’ American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding has been allocated to researching networked geothermal energy. With six networked geothermal demonstration installations moving forward in-state, rigorous independent data collection and analysis of the results is essential.
We are so grateful to Senator Barrett and his team for their leadership in securing this critical funding and ensuring that demonstration project results are science and data based.
From the Bill (H.4269):
"For a reserve to be administered by the Massachusetts clean energy technology center established in section 2 of chapter 23J of the General Laws to pay for a research team to oversee, collect and analyze data related to the design and operation of networked geothermal demonstration projects approved by the department of public utilities and other such related projects deemed appropriate by the center; provided, that funding shall be made available for collaboration by research, non-profit and university entities identified by the center to conduct a thorough evaluation of the demonstration projects and their related technology; and provided further, that those entities, in consultation with the center, shall: (i) model the system design and operation of proposed networked geothermal demonstration project sites; (ii) monitor the thermal energy storage potential of sites; (iii) create a public data bank of normalized data, including data on costs, to compare sites; (iv) document and disseminate recommendations and best practices for rapid scaling and optimization; (v) provide projections of scaled-up site impacts on heating, emissions, health, customer bills and other variables; (vi) engage and educate stakeholders in the host communities of potential sites; and (vii) perform feasibility studies for communities interested in serving as hosts for projects.………………………………………$5,000,000."
