A quiet $8.6M grant will double a first-of-its-kind geothermal network in Massachusetts—and shows why shared underground heating and cooling is the next big clean heat utility.
Why a $8.6M Geothermal Grant Matters More Than It Looks
An $8.6 million federal grant doesn’t usually make national headlines. But this one should.
The U.S. Department of Energy just signed off on funding that will double the size of the nation’s first utility-led geothermal heating and cooling network in Framingham, Massachusetts. It’s happening under a Trump administration that’s slashing billions from other clean energy programs—while quietly keeping geothermal on the priority list.
This matters because geothermal networks are one of the most efficient, least visible, and most politically durable green technologies we’ve got. They turn the ground beneath our feet into shared clean infrastructure, cut emissions from buildings—one of the dirtiest sectors of the economy—and create a new kind of utility business model that doesn’t depend on fossil fuels.
If you care about green technology that actually scales, not just makes good press, geothermal networks belong on your radar.
What Exactly Is a Geothermal Network (And Why Utilities Love It)?
A geothermal network is a shared, underground heating and cooling system that serves many buildings at once—like a gas network, but for low-temperature heat.
Here’s the simple version of how Framingham’s system works:
- Dozens of boreholes are drilled several hundred feet underground.
- At that depth, the earth sits at a steady ~55°F year-round.
- A closed loop of pipes circulates water through those boreholes and out to each connected building.
- Each building uses electric heat pumps to pull heat from (or dump heat into) that 55°F water, providing heating in winter and cooling in summer.
No combustion on-site. No gas leaks. Far lower emissions—especially as the grid gets cleaner.
For utilities, geothermal networks are attractive because they:
- Repurpose core skills (drilling, pipes, network management) instead of abandoning them.
- Create long-lived regulated assets similar to gas networks, but compatible with climate goals.
- Reduce peak electricity demand when designed well, because sharing thermal energy between buildings evens out extremes.
The Framingham pilot, led by Eversource Energy with the nonprofit HEET and the city of Framingham, already serves about 140 residential and commercial customers. The new DOE funding lets them add roughly 140 more, plus pay for detailed performance monitoring.
That last part is key: clean technology wins when it’s measured, not just marketed.
A Rare Clean Energy Win Under a Fossil-Heavy Agenda
Here’s the thing about this grant: it didn’t come from a pro-renewables administration.
- The funding stream was announced under Biden in 2024, but the contract wasn’t finalized until September 30, 2025, with the current Trump administration in full rollback mode on many clean energy programs.
- At the same time, the administration is clawing back billions in clean energy funding, including hundreds of millions from Massachusetts-based projects.
- The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy has been eliminated, folded into a new Hydrocarbons and Geothermal Energy Office—signaling where priorities lie.
Yet geothermal keeps getting quietly greenlit:
- Trump’s Day 1 “energy emergency” executive order explicitly backed fossil fuels, nuclear, biofuels, hydropower and geothermal.
- The One Big Beautiful Bill Act aggressively phases out tax credits for wind, solar, and EVs but leaves geothermal heating and cooling tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act largely intact.
That’s not an accident. Geothermal sits in a politically comfortable space:
- It’s firm, always-available energy (for heating/cooling) rather than weather-dependent.
- It supports drilling jobs and subsurface expertise—skills historically tied to oil and gas.
- It doesn’t trigger the same land-use fights that onshore wind or transmission lines often do.
From a green technology perspective, this is the story: geothermal is becoming a bipartisan clean heat solution, even as other renewables get pushed to the chopping block.
If you’re planning long-term decarbonization strategies—for a campus, city, or utility portfolio—that political resilience is a huge asset.
Why Geothermal Networks Get Cheaper and Better as They Grow
Most companies get this wrong. They assume geothermal is niche and expensive because they’re thinking about single-building ground-source systems, not networked geothermal.
The Framingham expansion shows why that thinking is outdated:
- The second phase is expected to roughly double capacity at about half the cost of the first phase.
- That cost drop is partly because core infrastructure already exists—pumping stations, controls, monitoring.
- As geothermal networks scale, they get more thermally efficient, needing fewer boreholes per added building.
Why does efficiency improve with scale?
Because buildings don’t all behave the same way:
- Some are cooling-dominant (data centers, retail, certain offices).
- Others are heating-dominant (older homes, certain commercial spaces).
- On a shared loop, waste heat from cooling-dominant buildings can serve heating-dominant buildings instead of being rejected to the air.
The result is:
- Less drilling per added building.
- Lower peak loads on heat pumps.
- Better year-round system balance.
Zeyneb Magavi of HEET calls it “the birth of a new utility.” She’s right. This is thermal infrastructure that:
- Delivers energy security by relying on local ground heat, not imported fuels.
- Improves affordability through shared infrastructure and stable operating costs.
- Cuts emissions and local air pollution, especially when it replaces gas networks.
For green technology planners, the lesson is straightforward: go networked where you can. Campus-scale or district-scale geothermal almost always has better economics and carbon performance than one-building-at-a-time retrofits.
Where AI and Data Make Geothermal Networks Even Smarter
Since this post is part of a green technology series focused on AI, let’s talk about the piece that doesn’t get enough attention: software is as important as drilling.
AI and advanced analytics are already starting to reshape how geothermal networks and district energy systems are planned and operated.
1. Smarter Site Selection and Design
Geothermal success depends on local geology, building mix, and load profiles. Traditionally, engineers rely on conservative assumptions and limited drilling tests.
AI can change that by:
- Analyzing geological datasets, past drilling logs, and soil maps to predict optimal borehole locations and depths.
- Running thousands of design scenarios to balance cost, performance, and risk.
- Estimating future load profiles based on urban growth patterns, electrification trends, and climate projections.
The outcome is leaner systems with fewer boreholes and smaller safety margins, translating directly to capex savings.
2. Real-Time Optimization of Thermal Flows
Once a geothermal network is running, the real gains come from dynamic control:
- AI controllers can predict demand across the network (hourly, daily, seasonally).
- They can shift loads—pre-cooling or pre-heating buildings when electricity is cheaper and cleaner.
- They can actively share excess heat between buildings and thermal storage.
Think of it as a “thermal internet”: heat moves where it’s needed most, when it’s cheapest and cleanest to move it.
3. Predictive Maintenance and Asset Health
Borefields and pumps don’t fail often, but when they do, it’s expensive and disruptive.
Machine learning models can:
- Flag early anomalies in pump performance or flow rates.
- Detect slow-developing issues like fouling or ground temperature drift.
- Suggest optimal operating strategies that extend asset life.
For utilities and campus operators, that means fewer surprises and more predictable returns.
If you’re a business or municipality thinking about geothermal, this is where partnering with a data-savvy integrator—or building your own analytics capability—turns a good project into a standout one.
What This Means for Cities, Campuses, and Climate Plans
The Framingham project isn’t just a local success story. It’s a template.
Here’s who should be paying attention and what they can actually do.
Cities and Municipalities
If you’re writing a climate action plan or struggling with building decarbonization, geothermal networks give you a practical pathway off gas.
Concrete steps:
- Map thermal demand at the district level (downtowns, redevelopment zones, mixed-use areas).
- Identify neighborhoods where gas infrastructure is aging or where residents face high energy burdens.
- Pilot a utility-scale or city-owned geothermal loop as a replacement when gas mains come up for renewal.
Over time, a city can build “thermal corridors” just as it builds bike lanes or transit lines.
Campuses and Large Property Owners
Universities, hospitals, industrial parks, and corporate campuses are perfect candidates for geothermal networks.
Why?
- They control large clusters of buildings and land.
- They often face public pressure to decarbonize and hit specific emissions targets.
- They can phase projects over time as buildings are renovated.
I’ve seen campuses quietly cut building emissions by 40–60% with well-designed geothermal or ambient loop systems, often with strong operating cost savings once financed.
Utilities and Energy Service Providers
For gas and electric utilities, geothermal networks are a way to:
- Replace declining gas revenue with regulated, low-carbon thermal services.
- Keep core competencies—drilling, network operations—relevant in a decarbonized future.
- Offer “clean heat as a service” products to regulators and customers.
If you’re in this space, the Framingham project is a proof-of-concept you can point to when you go in front of your public utilities commission.
How to Turn Interest into Action
Talk is cheap; boreholes aren’t. If you’re serious about geothermal networks, here’s a practical way to move from curiosity to an actual project.
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Run a high-level feasibility screen
- Identify target districts or campuses.
- Estimate current heating and cooling loads.
- Flag constraints: geology, space for drilling, existing energy systems.
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Commission a pre-feasibility study
- Work with a geothermal or district energy specialist.
- Model multiple scenarios (phased build-out, connection strategies, financing structures).
- Quantify emissions reductions, operating costs, and payback.
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Engage your utility or regulator early
- Position the project as network infrastructure, not a one-off gadget.
- Discuss potential tariff structures and recovery mechanisms.
- Align on how performance will be measured and reported.
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Layer in digital from day one
- Plan for sensors, data collection, and analytics as part of core capex.
- Decide what you’ll track: ground temperatures, flow rates, building loads, carbon intensity.
- Treat data as an asset that improves the system over time.
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Communicate clearly with end users
- Residents and tenants care about comfort, bills, and reliability.
- Frame geothermal as a way to stabilize costs and improve indoor comfort, not just a climate project.
- Use plain language: “shared underground heating and cooling network” lands better than “geothermal district loop.”
If you want help scoping a project or evaluating whether geothermal networks fit your portfolio, this is exactly the kind of green technology work our team focuses on.
The Bigger Story: Geothermal as Core Green Infrastructure
Here’s the reality: decarbonizing buildings without touching heating and cooling is a fantasy.
Geothermal networks like Framingham’s show a practical way forward:
- They reuse local, steady ground temperatures as a clean energy resource.
- They scale economically—costs drop as systems expand.
- They’re politically robust, even under administrations that are otherwise hostile to renewables.
- They pair naturally with AI, smart controls, and data-driven operations.
As we build out the next generation of green technology—AI-optimized grids, smart cities, low-carbon industry—thermal networks need to sit alongside solar farms and batteries in the conversation.
The Framingham expansion isn’t just a local infrastructure story. It’s a signal of where clean heat is heading: beneath our feet, shared across neighborhoods, quietly doing the work that flashy technologies often get credit for.
If you’re planning your organization’s climate strategy for the next 10–20 years, the question isn’t whether geothermal networks will show up in your region.
The question is whether you’ll be ready to use them.