In 2021, external consultants worked with Mount Holyoke College to develop a master plan for reaching carbon neutrality in 2037. A key element in this plan is to replace the current gas heating and cooling system with a geothermal system. The project will involve installing 26 miles of geothermal piping under the Mount Holyoke Campus and approximately 230 geothermal bore holes to heat and cool 43 buildings. Each vertical bore is 600 feet deep. The cost of this project is $180 million dollars.
The geothermal project will get electricity from the South Hadley Electric Light Department (SHELD). Nearly 90% of SHELD’s electricity comes from carbon-free sources. As most of us know the cost of electricity in South Hadley is low. Geothermal heating and cooling is much more efficient than the present gas boilers. Overtime this project will save money for the college and it will also save our environment. Methane is 80% more effective than carbon dioxide in trapping the heat in our atmosphere that causes climate change. It is vital to our efforts against climate change that we reduce and finally eliminate this pollutant.
The geothermal heating system will reduce many health problems because it replaces boilers using gas (methane) which contains 21 hazardous pollutants, including nitrogen oxides (NOx), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), cancer-causing benzene and formaldehyde (for more see – https://climate.sustainability-directory.com/question/how-does-methane-affect-health/). The geothermal project will make the air on campus and town much healthier. This effort will do the most for healthy air and the climate change problem than anything else that will ever happen in South Hadley. The college is doing this for our future as well as theirs.
John Howard
South Hadley