Natural gas infrastructure is akin to an enormous tree, its roots branching out across all 50 states. That analogy, passed on to her by a colleague, is always in the back of Audrey Schulman\u2019s mind as she ponders how best to wean utilities off of fossil fuels. \u201cIf you want to bring down a big tree in a crowded area, you can\u2019t just saw through the trunk and yell, \u2018Timber!\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cYou bring it down in stages.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schulman hopes to do just that as co-executive director of HEET<\/a>. The grassroots organization in Cambridge, Massachusetts, aims to accelerate the state\u2019s transition to renewable energy with a concept that could sever our dependence on fossil fuels: geothermal micro districts.<\/p>\n HEET wants utilities to replace leaky infrastructure with ground-source heat pumps. The technology draws heat from a few hundred feet underground, where the earth remains a fairly constant 54 degrees or so, and uses it to heat and cool buildings. As more sections of gas-carrying pipe are replaced with this technology, it would create networks, which HEET calls GeoMicroDistricts, that serve ever-larger areas, increasing efficiency and reducing costs.<\/p>\n The idea has earned the unlikely endorsement of Massachusetts gas companies, which, as Grist writer Emily Pontecorvo reported, consider GeoMicroDistricts a lifeline<\/a>. Eversource, the state\u2019s largest utility, announced in October that it\u2019s testing the concept<\/a> at two sites and hopes geothermal will keep it viable as the Bay State attempts to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions<\/a> by 2050. Schulman and HEET co-director Zeyneb Magavi hope the trial run helps geothermal power take off.<\/p>\n Transforming Massachusetts\u2019s energy system isn\u2019t exactly what Schulman, a novelist<\/a>, had in mind when she created the Home Energy Efficiency Team \u2014 which makes the clever acronym HEET \u2014 in 2008. She and several neighbors started throwing \u201cwork parties\u201d to help each other learn how to reduce their energy bills and their carbon footprints. Motherhood inspired Schulman to take climate action. \u201cIt was really easy for me to imagine how old my son would be in 2050, when scientists expect we\u2019ll see the worst consequences of climate change,\u201d she says. \u201cSuddenly the issue became very personal.\u201d<\/p>\n After learning enough about energy efficiency to write a book (literally<\/a>), Schulman and her team tackled something much bigger: plugging natural gas leaks. Aging underground pipes corrode and release methane, a greenhouse gas 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide. In 2014, Schulman and her colleagues published a map<\/a> of 16,000 leaks that utilities had reported to the state Department of Public Utilities (DPU). Some were fixed, but many were not. The map, and the public outrage it sparked, led to a 2016 law requiring utilities to address high-volume leaks, which are responsible for 7 percent of all releases in the state but account for half of the methane emissions.<\/p>\n That\u2019s when Magavi, Schulman\u2019s neighbor and friend, joined HEET. Magavi wanted to use her background in physics and public health to identify the largest of those invisible methane hotspots and ensure utilities plug them. In 2017, she and a few experts at HEET worked with the state\u2019s three biggest utilities, along with activists, academics, nonprofits, and government agencies, to identify major leaks and devise a plan<\/a> to limit methane emissions nationwide.<\/p>\n Magavi and Schulman don\u2019t come from the worlds of energy and engineering \u2014 something they believe has served them well. \u201cIt gives us a little innovative wiggle room, because we can suggest things that tightly regulated utilities can\u2019t,\u201d Schulman says. \u201cAnd we\u2019re scared, so we study like crazy, and sometimes that results in us saying, \u2018But didn\u2019t you know \u2026\u2019 to the experts \u2014 and making them shocked and amazed that it\u2019s true.\u201d<\/p>\n Plugging these leaks solves a critical short-term problem, but Schulman and Magavi have larger ambitions. They want to build an energy system free of natural gas, and they\u2019ve got a plan to do it. While combing through a 2018 DPU report, Schulman calculated that the department planned to spend $9 billion replacing problem pipes and felt geothermal infrastructure would be a better investment for public health, the planet, and the state\u2019s economy. But installing a heat-pump system in a single building can cost as much as $45,000<\/a>, making the tech a tough sell.<\/p>\n Magavi already had been pondering how to make geothermal cheaper for her own home. \u201cI was trying to go totally combustion-free, but when I saw the estimate, I was like, \u2018You\u2019ve got to be kidding me,\u2019\u201d she says. Much of that cost comes from the expense of boring into the ground. \u201cI asked the nicest driller I could find how I could lower the cost, and he said, \u2018If you can convince your neighbors to drill too, I can cut it down.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Magavi couldn\u2019t convince her neighbors to go geo, but her idea of utilizing economies of scale, combined with Schulman\u2019s sleuthing and that tree analogy, led to GeoMicroDistricts. The idea is to replace natural gas with ground-source heat-pump \u201cloops,\u201d or networks of pipes that bring geothermal energy to the surface. The word \u201cgeothermal\u201d usually calls to mind the heat generated by the earth\u2019s core, but it also refers to solar energy stored near the earth\u2019s surface. Think of the earth as a giant battery: When sunlight hits the ground, the planet stores that energy in the first few hundred feet of its crust, maintaining a fairly constant temperature of 54 degrees regardless of the season. Circulate water through that warmed ground, and you can use it to heat or cool buildings.<\/p>\n The basic technology to do this has been around for more than a century, and many energy experts maintain it\u2019s the most efficient climate-control system<\/a> out there. But it hasn\u2019t taken off because of its eyebrow-raising upfront costs. That\u2019s what makes GeoMicroDistrics so appealing. Installing heat pumps along an entire street lowers the cost. As more streets make the switch, utilities would connect them to create districts and, eventually, a grid. Consulting firm Buro Happold Engineering, which specializes in environmental design, claimed in a feasibility study<\/a> that GeoMicroDistricts could shrink energy bills while easing strain on the electricity grid, slashing greenhouse gas emissions by 60 percent, and forging the path for an efficient, systematic transition to clean energy.<\/p>\n The model tasks private utilities with managing the districts, allowing them to continue using their equipment and skilled workforce as fossil fuels become less viable. \u201cWe\u2019re ready to get our hands dirty and try this,\u201d Eversource President Bill Akley said<\/a> during a legislative hearing in November 2019. \u201cWe\u2019re aligned 100 percent with the technology and concept.\u201d<\/p>\n The relationships HEET has built with gas executives over the years was instrumental in getting them on board. Magavi says other environmentalists often consider the alliance \u201cmind-blowing,\u201d but she thinks cooperation is key to bringing geothermal to the masses.<\/p>\n \u201cAlmost everyone wants health, happiness, and a livable world for their children,\u201d she says. \u201cOur disagreements with these executives are usually about how to get to that shared vision and what trade-offs to make. But working together is way more effective than pointing fingers.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, Schulman and Magavi anticipate challenges in maintaining their unusual coalition of climate activists, gas companies, and geothermal startups, especially as they figure out the laws and regulations required to make the idea work. \u201cWe\u2019re going to integrate ideas about job creation, fair wages, low-income access, and reducing public health gaps,\u201d Magavi says. \u201cWe want this model to spread across the country. So it\u2019ll be hard to reach those equity goals and fend off a battle of interests in our coalition, all while transitioning to clean energy at the speed and scale needed for the planet.\u201d<\/p>\n Schulman and Magavi say it doesn\u2019t always help that HEET is run by two women. Magavi says that she attended a national conference hoping to get industry insiders excited about the idea. She eventually did, but only after enduring a lot of disinterest and condescension.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a really heavy lift to get an older white guy to believe that an innovation came from us,\u201d Magavi says. \u201cBut I was the only woman in my physics classes. And then I worked doing underwater acoustics for the U.S. Navy with mostly men. I\u2019ve learned to enjoy the banter, and I don\u2019t back down from a fight.<\/p>\n \u201cSure, I bring cookies to our meetings,\u201d she adds. \u201cBut guess what? I also wear the hardhat.\u201d<\/p>\nAn idea gathers steam<\/h3>\n
\u2018We\u2019re ready to get our hands dirty\u2019<\/h3>\n
An unlikely alliance<\/h3>\n