HEET’s new Director of Environmental Justice Community Outreach, Kai Palmer-Dunning, will be leading efforts to improve Boston air quality and respiratory health as a part of HEET’s EJAir (Environmental Justice Air) program. EJAir focuses on reducing emissions and energy bills for environmental justice communities in Boston through energy efficiency retrofits available through the Mass Save…
Each month, HEET hosts a Community Charrette covering a variety of topics related to networked geothermal demonstration projects. Enterprising gas companies—keen to explore cost efficient replacements for increasingly ineffective and outdated gas system business models—have already committed to $30 million in demonstration installations in Massachusetts (Eversource Gas and Merrimack Valley Installations) and New York (NYSERDA,…
HEET is pioneering a radical transformation of gas utilities into non-emitting thermal utilities, transitioning them away from delivering fossil fuels to instead delivering heating and cooling through networked ground source heat pumps. The model utilizes underground pipes in the gas utility’s right-of-way in the street to deliver ambient-temperature water to buildings. Heat pumps in each…
We are excited to announce that HEET Founder and Co-Executive Director, Audrey Schulman, won the Advanced Energy Group’s Washington July Speaker Challenge on Grid Modernization. Audrey, along with four other speakers, presented pressing challenges to achieving Washington D.C.’s carbon and equity goals. HEET’s winning obstacle statement focused on the need for a data-based transition plan…
May 27, 2021 | by Dominic Nicholas HEET has updated the gas leak maps—and this year you can see the estimated emissions for each town. The maps now show 2020 data for each city and town with gas service. The new emissions calculator page explains how we calculated the emissions for each town. You can enter your own data…
May 27, 2021 | By Dominic Nicholas HEET continues to act as a watchdog, verifying utilities identification and repair of their super-emitting gas leaks—these are the leaks that emit most of the greenhouse gas methane directly into the atmosphere. Our goal over the next five years is to be the first in the nation to…
May 27, 2021 | By Sarah Griffith After the Department of Public Utilities rejected their first attempt, National Grid is back with a new proposal to build a GeoMicroDistrict. It’s described in Docket No. 21-24 for those of you who want to read along. Their new proposal has many good details. Their new proposal: Looks…
May 27, 2021 | By Carrie Klein Gas utilities have faced both regulatory constraints and business pressure to adapt for years. Now, new climate legislation in Massachusetts spells out that gas utilities need to adopt new practices. “An Act Creating a Next Generation Roadmap for Massachusetts Climate Policy,” defines more clearly the state’s goals for…
May 27, 2021 | By Sarah Griffith HEET has long believed in the wisdom of the crowd, that is, the ability of a group of people to rapidly problem solve. Now that GeoMicroDistricts are going in the ground this year, HEET has begun monthly topical Community Charrettes. Our Charrettes gather stakeholders to share knowledge, anticipate…
May 27, 2021 | By Sarah Griffith and Carrie Klein HEET commissioned the Applied Economics Clinic to project heating costs in Massachusetts. The results predict that by 2030, heating with gas in Massachusetts will become more expensive than heating with efficient electric heat pumps. Inflection Point: When Heating with Gas Costs More shows that rising costs…
