NORTHAMPTON — Within a year, Northampton High School expects to cut its carbon emissions in half by drawing heat and cooling from 850 feet underground, under an $11.6 million geothermal project the city broke ground on Thursday.
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra joined city and school officials outside the school for the ceremony. The system will pump water through pipes sunk deep into the earth, tapping the ground’s stable temperature to replace the school’s conventional heating and cooling.
Officials said the system is also expected to save the city millions in maintenance costs.
“A ground source heat pump is simply the most efficient way to provide heating and cooling. This is as close to a future-proof investment as you get in HVAC,” said Ben Weil, director of the city’s Climate Action & Project Administration. “The laws of thermodynamics do not change, so no matter what technological development occurs, exchanging heat with the relatively mild earth 850 feet down will continue to minimize energy use and maximize performance.”
Weil previously explained that the geothermal system is expected to save the school approximately 4.7 billion British thermal units a year, or 68% of its energy use. He estimated that the total energy savings will amount to $39,000 each year.
Noting that the project is constrained to a guaranteed maximum price, Sciarra explained that its price tag, unlike those of other municipal projects, cannot inflate. Through a combination of stabilization funds, utility incentives, grant funding, tax incentives and borrowing, the mayor said the system bears the “lowest life cycle cost” and “best return on investment.”
She called it “one of the most exciting projects [she has] been a part of.” She said the system is expected to last a century or more and represents an investment in the future and in renewable energy.
“By using electricity efficiently to draw our heat from the relatively stable ground below us, by this time next year, we will have cut our carbon emissions by more than half at the high school. For every year after that, our emissions will continue to decrease as the grid gets cleaner and we invest in more renewable energy options throughout the city until we reach zero,” Sciarra said. “This is a durable infrastructure — like a water system or a sewer system — that the city depends on.”
The city finalized its contract with Brightcore Energy Services, a company based in Armonk, New York, that specializes in clean energy projects for large institutions, in August.
Jamie Scott, climate policy and program manager for the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, said the project is an investment in the school district, student comfort, clean energy and the taxpayers.
“We obviously talk to a lot of school leaders across the state, and we hear recurring themes about safer schools and what these modern, innovative solutions can mean, they provide thermal comfort for students and teachers,” Scott said. “Older school buildings are often too warm, too cold, may not even have heating or cooling in some cases. Green School Works funding helps to make these schools a more comfortable learning environment.”
Sara Ross, who co-founded the nonprofit UndauntedK12, one of the geothermal project’s partners, explained that the geothermal system will put the city front and center in a national movement toward more efficient and environment-friendly infrastructure.
“Northampton Public Schools is leading not just in western Mass, not just in Massachusetts, but really on a national stage. This project will be eligible to claim federal energy tax credits,” Ross said. “Northampton joins school districts from across the country, from Washington to West Virginia, from Minnesota to Maine … all across the country, school district leaders and municipal officials are moving with their feet to take advantage of these unlimited federal dollars to install this technology.”
