Culture
A College Campus Offers a Glimpse of a Geothermal Future
Ball State University is halfway through a project that will dramatically cut its campus carbon emissions and cities are taking notice
Officials from schools and towns all over the country have been traveling to Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., to look at, well, nothing. The school is halfway through the construction of the largest geothermal district heating and cooling system in the country. By the time it’s done, the system will heat and cool the entire campus, completely replacing the university’s ancient coal-fired boilers, and it will serve as one of the best testaments yet to the promise that larger communities – even whole towns and one day cities – could go geothermal in the future as well.
For anyone who wants to travel to central Indiana to see all of this in action, though, the sight is somewhat less impressive than the technology beneath it.