Vermont Gas scales back Hinesburg geothermal network after DOE grant pause
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Summary
Vermont Gas said a Department of Energy grant award intended to fund a single thermal energy network at a Hinesburg affordable housing project was paused after recent federal administrative changes, forcing the developer and utility to redesign the project into separate loops and reducing the scope of the original plan.
Vermont Gas told the House committee that a DOE-funded project to test a community-scale geothermal/thermal energy network for affordable housing in Hinesburg had been downsized after a federal grant pause earlier this year.
Dylan Giamatiza, director of public affairs for Vermont Gas, described a multi-stage process: the utility and its development partner (Chittenden County Housing Trust) completed community engagement and received an initial award; a second-phase grant, described by Giamatiza as roughly $3,000,000, was later awarded to construct a thermal energy network serving multiple affordable housing buildings. "The grant was awarded, and then things very much changed in January 2025," Giamatiza said; he explained that subsequent DOE administrative pauses and slower contact with federal program staff made it infeasible to rely on the federal disbursement for a single-network design.
As a result, the partners redesigned the site to build separate individual-loop geothermal systems for seven affordable housing complexes rather than one shared thermal-energy network. Giamatiza said the change preserved the opportunity to install geothermal technology at the site but reduced the original demonstration scale and constrained the team's ability to test a larger network architecture.
Giamatiza noted that federal tax and credit changes have altered the broader financing landscape for geothermal and related clean-heat investments, even as the federal administration has signaled longer phasing and continued support for some geothermal tax treatments in later years. He said Vermont Gas will continue to pursue geothermal opportunities and pointed to recent state-level programs (including guidance for capital or infrastructure funds) that could provide future funding pathways.
What's next: Vermont Gas said it will continue to develop geothermal projects where feasible, watch state-level funding options and work with developers to align timelines to available grants and program windows.