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    Bedrock Energy Completes Geothermal HVAC Project at Penn Field Mixed-Use Campus in Texas

    April 30, 2024
    The new geothermal HVAC system utilizes ground-source heat pumps to tap into the ambient temperatures of the ground to provide renewable, emission-free heating and cooling
    Bedrock Energy
    663117c6e96e7c0008ad06d5 Bedrock Energy

    Bedrock Energy, a technology company designing and constructing geothermal heating and cooling systems, has installed a geothermal borefield and heating and cooling system at Building D of the Penn Field campus in Austin, Texas.

    Developed in 1918, the facility was once an air base for the US Army, and the original infrastructure has since been updated from its post-World War I design. Today, Penn Field exists as a 228,000-square-foot, 16-acre, mixed-use office and retail campus that is host to a diverse tenant base, including technology, media, and entertainment companies. 

    This geothermal energy project will help continue to transform the facility by reducing its dependence on fossil fuels, lowering its energy consumption, and cutting costs related to heating and cooling the office buildings. 

    "Our team is thrilled to bring something truly special to Texas with our first geothermal project. This installation demonstrates how the energy beneath our feet offers not only comfort but also savings, reliability, and innovation. Geothermal can strengthen our grid, support our businesses, create jobs, and help our communities thrive," said Joselyn Lai, Co-Founder and CEO of Bedrock Energy. 

    Led by Bedrock Energy's team of technologists, operational engineers, and implementation crew members, the borefield project was completed in just three months. This was made possible through Bedrock's technologies, which combine automated drilling and advanced subsurface modeling to increase drilling speed and space efficiency while improving subsurface accuracy. 

    This process also allowed the company to limit the borefield to 11 bores, compared to the nearly 30 bores that would have been required with conventional technologies. 

    The new geothermal HVAC system utilizes ground-source heat pumps to tap into the ambient temperatures of the ground to provide renewable, emission-free heating and cooling. In total, the system will provide 35 tons of heating and cooling for four tenants of Building D. 

    The completion of this project follows Bedrock's $8.5 million seed funding round announcement in October 2023. 

    About the Author

    EnergyTech Staff

    Rod Walton is senior editor for EnergyTech.com. He has spent 14 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist.

    Walton formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

    He can be reached at [email protected]. 

    EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids.

    Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.