A $9.5 million EPA grant will fund New Haven’s creation of a geothermal system, which will sustainably power Union Station and adjacent housing units.
Lily Belle Poling
11:31 pm, Sep 26, 2024
Staff Reporter
Vaibhav Sharma, Senior Photographer
Union Station is on track to reach carbon neutrality thanks to a substantial grant from the Environmental Protection Agency.
The $9.47 million will fund the development of the Union Station Area Thermal Energy Network, which will harness geothermal energy to power both Union Station and the upcoming Union Square housing community. New Haven plans to complete the design and construction of the project within five years.
“[Union Station] will be the greenest train station in the United States of America, in one of the greenest cities in the United States, in the greenest state in America,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal LAW ’73 said. “It is truly a historic investment.”
The News could not confirm Connecticut’s alleged standing as the greenest state in America.
The heat pumps connected to the geothermal system will move Union Station away from its reliance on fossil fuels. The pumps will also provide sustainable heating and cooling to the more than 1,000 affordable housing units the city is planning to build across the street from the train station.
The project is estimated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 63,000 metric tons through 2050, according to an EPA spokesperson. The shift away from fossil fuel and electricity at the station will also create additional capacity for other local decarbonization efforts by reducing demand on the electric grid.
The spokesperson described New Haven’s plan as “a blueprint for similar cities and communities to use thermal energy networks to support affordable housing production, economic development and neighborhood-scale decarbonization.”
Geothermal systems take advantage of the consistent temperature that exists in the ground below surface level to provide both heating and cooling services. In the winter, water in underground geothermal pipes absorbs the earth’s heat and transfers it to a surface-level heat pump, which warms the air. In the summer, the water in the pipes is cooled by the underground temperature and is then used to cool the building’s air.
According to Steve Winter, New Haven’s executive director of climate and sustainability, the plan came from the city’s push for a neighborhood-scale project that would reduce fossil fuel use. Winter led the city’s application for EPA funding.
Mayor Justin Elicker added that the project will provide green jobs.
“There’s an economic benefit because a lot of the units across the street will be affordable, but it will also ensure that Union Station virtually eliminates all on-site fossil fuel use,” Elicker said. “Currently, Union Station heats with gas and cools with electricity, and the geothermal will allow it to do virtually all of that carbon-neutral, which is just incredible.”
Karen Dubois-Walton ’89, president of Elm City Communities, New Haven’s housing authority that is developing the Union Square units, wrote that the development of the geothermal system will ensure that the units are actually affordable. According to Dubois-Walton, utility costs often contribute to the unaffordability of certain housing options.
She also wrote that climate-friendly measures are a priority for Elm City Communities.
In the July press conference announcing receipt of the funds, Sen. Blumenthal credited this “transformative technology” to the Biden-Harris Administration’s “commitment to rebuilding America.” He believes Vice President Kamala Harris will continue this legacy if elected President in November.
“We are going to see the results clearly for years, for generations,” Blumenthal said. “People will walk through this building and see the results of Joe Biden’s leadership here. Geothermal, heat pumps, electric charging — nobody was talking about this stuff four years ago.”
New Haven was one of two municipalities to receive one of the EPA’s 25 climate pollution reduction grants.
LILY BELLE POLING
Lily Belle Poling covers housing and homelessness and climate and the environment. She is also a production and design editor and lays out the weekly print. Originally from Montgomery, Alabama, she is a sophomore in Branford College majoring in Global Affairs and English.
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Publish date : 2024-09-26 16:31:00
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