In rural Wisconsin, a corporate campus looks more like a fantasy theme park. But according to Inside Climate News, the wildest part of Epic Systems' "Intergalactic Headquarters" isn't the whimsical buildings. It's what's buried underneath: one of the largest geothermal heating and cooling networks on Earth.
Heating and cooling our buildings costs a fortune and consumes massive amounts of energy. The U.S. Department of Energy reports that buildings consume nearly 40% of all U.S. energy, with over half of that for heating and cooling. Epic decided to tap the stable energy source right under its feet.
Geothermal energy is simply heat from the earth. Unlike wind or solar, it's a reliable source that is always on, 24/7. It uses the ground's stable temperature, about 50 degrees Fahrenheit year-round in Wisconsin. The system acts as a heat source in winter and a heat sink (a heat dissipator) in summer.
Epic's system is massive. It uses 6,100 boreholes drilled hundreds of feet deep, circulating 6 million gallons of water across its 410-acre campus. These boreholes also act as a giant "thermal battery."
"They harvest energy from that battery in the heating season and then in the cooling season, they're recharging the battery by putting heat back into the subsurface," explained James Tinjum of the University of Wisconsin–Madison to Inside Climate News.
The results are impressive. Epic's buildings use only about one-quarter of the energy of typical office buildings. According to Derek Schnabel, Epic's director of facilities, more than half of that energy reduction comes directly from the geothermal system.
This shows geothermal's diverse potential. The same energy is used in unique ways, like in Iceland, where people famously bake bread in the hot ground. Researchers are also finding new ways to harness it, from repurposing old oil and gas wells to developing new drilling methods.
Other companies are developing enhanced drilling systems and new technologies to lower the high upfront installation costs, a long-standing main barrier to adoption.
Epic proves geothermal can work at the scale of a small town. Ryan Dougherty, president of industry group GeoExchange, called it a "marquee" project. It "can serve as an instructive example of how to do something that many others might think is too big and too complex," he told Inside Climate News.
This isn't just about one company. Scaling up reliable, domestic clean energy like geothermal is crucial for diversifying our power grid. It has a tiny land footprint and helps curb harmful air pollution from burning dirty energy.
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Lower energy bills 💰 This switch improves human health. Although the upfront cost is higher, the long-term benefits are substantial. The pipes alone are expected to last 80 years or more. An Epic spokesperson confirmed its 15- to 20-year return on investment, and its first borefield is already paid off.
"As a private company, we can make investments that take a little bit longer to pay back if we really believe in them," Schnabel told Inside Climate News. "It was just that simple."
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