125-year-old church faced stifling temperatures and oppressive heat: It turned to geothermal energy

A 125-year-old church in Westchester County, New York, is the site of a cutting-edge energy project, Inside Climate News reported.

Christ Church Bronxville sits just a few miles north of New York City's border, and Rev. Kurt Gerhard said that hot summers and stifling indoor temperatures had become untenable.

"Our church was only available in the morning, and it was 85 degrees in there because of the heat outside," he told ICN.

Gerhard said that cooling systems for the four-building complex that makes up the church had begun failing in 2022, necessitating a major upgrade.

Church leaders spent months considering two approaches: buying a boiler and air conditioning units or investing in a "more complex but longer-lasting solution."

Christ Church Bronxville's decision to switch to geothermal energy was part of what Scientific American recently called "a quiet geothermal boom" in urban areas. 

The outlet profiled a 34-story waterfront apartment complex in Brooklyn, The Riverie, which is expected to reduce standard building emissions by 53% through geothermal energy use.

The church is a large commercial complex, and the project's cost is expected to total $4.4 million, partly subsidized by rebates that no longer apply to households.  

Geothermal energy has historically involved high upfront costs.

However, energy experts told ICN that geothermal is slowly making its way into the residential sphere, thanks to significant rebate programs in states such as New York and to novel funding models that make renewable energy more accessible than ever.

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ICN noted that a growing "energy as a service" or "EaaS" funding model allows commercial and residential property owners to access clean energy solutions via subscriptions rather than costly infrastructure upgrades.

That is particularly valuable in and around New York City, where sourcing geothermal energy is complicated by diverse geology. The Bronx is rocky, for example, whereas Brooklyn and Queens have sand and artificial fill.

Diverso Energy is an EaaS company, and CEO Tim Weber told Scientific American that if cities supply the policies, the market will rapidly move to cover funding gaps.

"If a city is bold enough to create aggressive climate and decarbonization mandates, the private sector will come up with technology and business solutions to respond," Weber said.

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