“There’s now a coalition of gas utilities that are meeting regularly to try to find out more about networked geothermal. They are actively asking for more information, and a variety of them are installing pilots. Could we now be at the point where we’re about to have a thermal utility?”

“’It’s a near-perfect overlay of our current business model,’ saidRichard Donnelly, director of energy innovation at Vermont Gas Systems, which currently serves about 55,000 customers.”

“To solve gas utilities’ decarbonization dilemma, avoid spending millions (or billions) on near-certain stranded assets, and reduce building emissions efficiently and effectively, a group in Massachusetts, HEET, came up with the novel concept of [networked geothermal].”

“Geothermal cooling and heating is among the technologies that can negate the need for natural gas, but it can prove costly and complex in dense urban areas. A historic home on Chicago’s near South Side, however, provides a blueprint for how it can be done.”

“Altogether, efficient electrification can significantly reduce the need for renewable energy. Instead of having to multiply our current solar and wind power by 28 or 303, respectively, we find such technology would bring the need for solar and wind down to 4.5 or 36 times our current output. That’s much more achievable.”

“Nitrogen dioxide is not the only pollutant of concern from gas stoves. Some pollution with potential impacts on human health and Earth’s climate occurs when stoves aren’t even running.”