Blacks in Green Selected for Funding to Deploy $9.9 Million Dollar Community Geothermal Heating and Cooling Initiative in its 2nd Year
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 17, 2024
Contact:
Naomi Davis | 773-678-9541 | naomidavis@blacksingreen.org
CHICAGO, IL — The Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO) of the US Dept of Energy has selected five projects to enter a second phase of GTO’s Community Geothermal Heating and Cooling Initiative. The project teams are selected to proceed to Budget Period 2, receiving a combined total of more than $35 million to install community-scale geothermal heating and cooling systems that they designed in their first phase of work. The projects feature three urban/suburban communities and two rural communities that will employ a range of system sizes, technologies, and innovations—offering diverse installations that will help other communities see how they can also implement community geothermal. In partnership with property owners and the community, the geothermal systems will be installed by each team’s workforce, design and analysis, and installation experts.
The Blacks in Green [BIG] project is Sustainable Chicago Geothermal, deploying an underground connected geothermal system in the city’s alleys to lower heating and cooling costs for over 200 households. It advances BIG’s vision for energy justice projects that model clean energy and microgrid/VPP systems owned and managed by the community. It brings together coalition partners – City of Chicago, University of Illinois, The Accelerate Group, Citizens Utility Board, Climate Jobs Illinois, dbHMS, GeoExchange, and Illinois AFL-CIO.
“BIG launched in 2007 with a goal of increasing household income and community resilience against the harms of climate crisis at neighborhood scale using the new green economy – so we’re grateful for this chance to make it manifest” said Naomi Davis, founder and CEO of Blacks in Green. “We started with a theory – our 2nd Principle of Green-Village-Building: Each village produces and stores its own energy for light, heat, and transportation, and owns its means of production…then a dozen years working for free on community environmental programs…then funding for our first energy efficiency campaign…then years of microgrid research…now this chance to do the work and share the learning – energy justice comes of age!”
"The Sustainable Chicago Geothermal Project will be a transformational investment in the West Woodlawn community," said Andrew Barbeau, President of The Accelerate Group and Principal Investigator of the project. "The effort to eliminate harmful emissions from homes and businesses, while lowering energy burden, has proven to be a community-wide challenge, and requires a community-wide solution."
Other Selected Teams
Project teams were downselected from 11 projects funded in the first phase of the initiative, where coalitions selected project sites, assessed the geothermal resource and permitting needs, conducted feasibility analysis and local engagement, and identified workforce and training needs. Other selected project locations and leads are:
· Ann Arbor, MI’s Bryant Community (City of Ann Arbor)
· Framingham, MA (Home Energy Efficiency Team [HEET])
· Hinesburg, VT (GTI Energy)
· Shawnee, OK (University of Oklahoma)
Community Geothermal Emerges in Chicago
Blacks in Green led a strong coalition of community groups, government, and universities to design a community geothermal system in the West Woodlawn neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. The coalition selected the project site, assessed the geothermal resource and permitting needs, conducted feasibility analysis and local engagement, and identified workforce and training needs to support a community-owned heating and cooling system. The project will deploy a shared community geothermal network across multiple city blocks. The project will use geothermal energy, leveraging the Earth’s temperature to heat and cool buildings through shared underground loops that deliver heat to buildings more efficiently than gas heat, and help cool those buildings in the summer. It will develop a community-scale geothermal network in the public right-of-way that residents and businesses can opt into over time when they are ready and will begin to position neighbors as owners/managers of a transforming energy industry. The City of Chicago, through its Department of Environment – a global leader in fighting climate change – has been an affirmative and essential partner.
Year two will focus on installing the system within the multiblock footprint and advancing neighbor knowledge of alley-to-home-to-appliance interconnectivity, comfort and cost; and cultivating the possible jobs and businesses in decarbonization, including heat pump distribution and installation; HVAC upgrade design, sales, and financing; electrical energy efficiency; and building auditing and weatherization. Households will voluntarily opt-in when ready, and will enjoy significantly lower heating and cooling costs, with the expansion of central air to homes currently without it.
BIG’s Commitment To Affordability
BIG’s selection for the US Department of Energy Phase 2 geothermal initiative advances the organization’s longstanding goal of on-the-ground solutions for energy justice. BIG launched a Campaign To End Energy Poverty at its West Woodlawn headquarters in 2022, bringing together community advocates, technical allies, government officials, academic institutions, and philanthropic organizations to tackle the escalating issue of energy unaffordability. The coalition introduced PURR, the People’s Utility Rate Relief Act into the 2023 Illinois General Assembly and continues to press for its passage. The campaign also launched Community Voices, a program that recruited and trained neighbors to share opposition and ideas about unfettered gas and electric rate increases to the Illinois Commerce Commission [ICC]. Their input was cited over 50 times in the ICC’s historic rollback of 2024 utility rate increase requests and adoption of a pioneering discount rate price structure for low and moderate-income households as outlined in the PURR legislation.
Climate Crisis in America
As summarized in a recent report by the National Consumer Law Center, while the planet continues to warm, recent data from the U.S. Energy Information Unaffordability Administration confirms that unaffordability of essential utility service remains a problem for nearly 30 percent of the U.S. population. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the frequency, duration and intensity of extreme heat waves and associated humidity has significantly increased over the past several decades, and extreme heat is the leading cause of weather-related deaths. Particularly vulnerable populations include older adults, households with children, low-income populations, outdoor workers, athletes, and people with disabilities and chronic illness. The most severe harms from the extreme heat waves and humidity associated with climate change fall disproportionately on underserved communities who are least able to prepare for and recover from, heat waves, poor air quality, flooding, and other impacts. Meanwhile, electric utilities, in anticipation of increased peak energy loads, are filing significant rate increase requests across the country, arguing that substantial infrastructure investments are needed to meet the coming demand for electric vehicles, electrified buildings, and other usage sources.
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About Blacks in Green™
Blacks in Green [BIG], founded in 2007 by attorney Naomi Davis, builds economies in energy, horticulture, housing, tourism, and waste as the new infrastructure and narrative for Black American communities becoming synonymous with beauty, prosperity, comfort, and joy. It is the creator of the Sustainable Square Mile™ system [SSM] which implements its 8 Principles of Green-Village-Building™. The 8 Principles are designed to develop walk-to-work, walk-to-shop, walk-to-learn, walk-to-play villages where African Americans own the businesses, own the land, and live the conservation lifestyle (households and homesteads which produce their own energy, grow their own food, clean their own water, and recycle their own waste). By cultivating support for business creation and real estate ownership by neighbors, Blacks in Green aims to increase Sustainable Square Mile™ household income via the new green economy and build an oasis of resilience against the harms of climate crisis, right where people live. For more information about BIG’s geothermal program click here. For general information about BIG, contact founder Naomi Davis at naomidavis@blacksingreen.org. For information about geothermal heating and cooling visit GTO’s website.