Vermont Gas, Dandelion Energy Partner on Geothermal

Vermont Gas and Dandelion Energy are collaborating to install geothermal ground loops at the Riggs Meadow affordable housing development in Hinesburg, VT. The project, announced October 1, 2026, will serve 44 townhomes and apartments for low- and moderate-income renters and owners developed by Champlain Housing Trust and Evernorth. Dandelion Energy will serve as the end-to-end geothermal partner, handling system design and drilling. Residents are expected to move in during late 2027.

Neale Lunderville, President & CEO of Vermont Gas (VGS), said the move aligns with the utility's strategy. "This is an important part of our long-term strategy to diversify our revenue and keep the service we provide affordable for customers." Dan Yates is the CEO of Dandelion Energy. Dylan Giambatista is a press contact for VGS. In its April announcement, VGS said the geothermal system would serve four multifamily buildings containing 36 of the development’s homes.

How the geothermal system works and who pays

Vermont Gas will pay for, own, and maintain the underground pipes, known as ground loops. Each building will have its own loop. Electric ground-source heat pumps inside the buildings will use fluid circulating through these pipes to move heat. In winter, they bring heat from the ground indoors. In summer, they send heat from the homes underground. Temperatures below ground stay relatively steady, helping the system work efficiently through Vermont’s cold winters and hot summers.

Typically, developers must fund underground infrastructure themselves. By taking on this expense, VGS makes geothermal easier to include in affordable housing. Under its broader geothermal offering through Clover Energy, the utility owns the underground infrastructure. Customers own the inside equipment and pay a monthly fee for loop access. For this project, nonprofit affordable housing partners are covering the more expensive installation of the ground-source heat pumps inside the buildings. Residents will pay a standard monthly utility bill plus a separate fee of $25 to $35 over 20 years to access the geothermal loops.

Costs, funding, and economics

The total cost of the geothermal project with Dandelion is estimated at $2 million. Vermont Gas is investing nearly $400,000. This overall price tag is about $1 million less than originally proposed. The utility had planned to use a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to cover most of the costs. Those funds did not materialize after the Trump administration froze, canceled, or clawed back tens of billions of dollars for climate and clean energy initiatives.

Vermont Gas stated in a regulatory filing that its grant hasn't been canceled, but the DOE hasn't committed to a timeline for fund availability. The utility and Dandelion then redesigned the project to lower costs. This redesign could make the model easier to replicate across other housing developments. The combined cost is still expected to be less than using fuel oil or propane, especially given volatile price fluctuations.

Broader context and goals

Vermont Gas serves about 56,000 customers in northwestern Vermont. The state has a legally binding target to cut greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2050 compared to 1990 levels. This project is part of the utility's adaptation. Vermont Gas is also investing in energy efficiency, installing heat pumps, and capturing methane from dairy farms and landfills to pipe to homes. One methane capture project was completed earlier this year.

The utility is among about two dozen participating in a 'gas-to-geo' initiative launched by the climate nonprofit HEET. Nationally, more than a dozen states since 2021 have passed laws mandating or encouraging gas utilities to test geothermal networks. These include Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, and Washington. Eversource Energy in Massachusetts completed its first residential geothermal project in 2024. National Grid in New York is piloting community-scale geothermal loops.

Geothermal supplies both heating and cooling, which is increasingly in demand as Northeast summers get hotter. Lunderville noted the economics are best in new homes. Vermont aims to build 30,000 new homes by 2030. Retrofits are far more expensive. In some U.S. Regions with older gas pipelines, replacing them with geothermal lines may make sense, though Vermont’s gas infrastructure is mostly under three decades old.

Dandelion is deploying geothermal loops in about 1,000 homes per year with a goal to scale to 10,000. The company has installed thousands of residential geothermal heat pumps since 2017 and over 1 million linear feet of ground loops nationwide. Dan Yates called the partnership a major milestone. "It’s time to mainstream geothermal," he said. The partnership is described as the first of its kind in the nation for a natural gas utility. VGS aims to incorporate geothermal into its product portfolio to give more choices to homebuilders and customers.

Drilling for the geothermal boreholes is scheduled to begin in early 2027.