Homebuilder Lennar is partnering with Dandelion Power in metro Denver on what the businesses say shall be one of many nation’s largest residential deployments of geothermal heating and cooling.
Representatives of the businesses in addition to Gov. Jared Polis, Xcel Power-Colorado President Robert Kenney and Colorado Power Workplace Government Director Will Toor turned out Wednesday to formally kick off work on a brand new housing improvement on the far western reaches of metro Denver. The event within the Ken Caryl neighborhood close to Littleton is one among 14 Denver-area communities the place Lennar and Dandelion Power will set up geothermal warmth pumps in roughly 1,500 houses over the following two years.
For each Lennar and Dandelion Power, their collaboration marks the businesses’ largest installations of what are known as ground-source warmth pumps. Holes are bored within the floor to faucet the steady subsurface temperatures to heat indoor air within the winter and funky it in the summertime.
The aim is to scale back the expense of putting in warmth pumps by means of efficiencies produced by spreading the prices throughout tons of of houses. Householders will profit from heating and cooling that would minimize by half the vitality consumption of conventional programs, in keeping with the businesses.
And Colorado and Xcel Power officers mentioned growing the variety of houses utilizing geothermal warmth pumps will assist meet their targets for reducing greenhouse gasoline emissions and boosting using renewable vitality.
Dan Yates, CEO of Virginia-based Dandelion, mentioned the launch of the Colorado housing developments marked a turning level for the corporate and the trade. Whereas geothermal warmth pumps are a confirmed expertise, are dependable and price much less to function than typical programs, Yates mentioned solely about 1% of the nation’s houses use them for heating and cooling.
“Whereas geothermal has been far and away the most affordable answer to function, it has not been the most affordable answer to put in. And that’s altering with this challenge,” Yates mentioned.
Kathy Hannun, Dandelion’s chief expertise officer and co-founder, mentioned in an interview with The Denver Submit that the upfront prices of placing in geothermal warmth pumps has been a hurdle.
“We’re going to have the ability to present with this challenge that when you can set up them at (a large) scale, you possibly can truly dramatically carry that upfront value down,” Hannun mentioned.
A handful of different giant developments throughout the nation, together with one within the Louisville, Ky., space, are constructing houses with geothermal warmth pumps, Greg Kurtz of the Worldwide Floor Supply Warmth Pump Affiliation mentioned in an e-mail. He mentioned the Lennar-Dandelion collaboration could be thought of an enormous challenge if it “reaches a construct out of 1,500 houses.”
Lennar additionally plans to construct new heat-pump-equipped houses in Aurora, Brighton, Parker, Lafayette, Erie, Commerce Metropolis and Centennial.
Hannun mentioned Lennar and Dandelion selected to roll out their plans in Colorado partly because of the tax incentives and rebates supplied by the state and utilities. Xcel Power mentioned the challenge qualifies for its new development rebates, which pays $20,000 to $25,000 per home for set up and different prices if sure necessities are met.
“We ran the numbers with them in Colorado and it simply turned actually clear that there’s plenty of financial worth to doing geothermal on this specific market,” Hannun mentioned.
Federal laws authorised by the Biden administration contains tax incentives for geothermal warmth pumps. Analysts have mentioned the Trump administration hasn’t focused geothermal incentives because it has federal incentives for photo voltaic and wind energy and electrical automobiles.
“I feel Colorado has achieved an unbelievable job of welcoming geothermal and appropriately figuring out it as a really pragmatic and cost-effective answer for vitality,” Hannun mentioned.
Polis was elected as chairman of the Western Governors’ Affiliation in 2024. His high initiative was advancing the event of geothermal vitality within the West. The affiliation produced a report on geothermal vitality known as “The Warmth Beneath our Ft.”
The audio system mentioned growing geothermal vitality sources will assist make Colorado’s electrical grid extra resilient, assist ease demand throughout high-peak use occasions and minimize heat-trapping emissions.
“Constructing heating is among the high 5 sources of greenhouse gasoline air pollution within the state of Colorado,” mentioned Toor of the Colorado Power workplace. “Decreasing these emissions is important to assembly our local weather targets.”
