Enerdrape Brings Urban Geothermal Energy to New York

New York City's dense web of underground subway tunnels, car garages, and shopping malls contains a hidden treasure: heat. This hidden thermal reservoir would be a near-future clean-energy gold mine, thanks to a Swiss company that believes urban geothermal energy has the potential to transform the way cities heat and cool their buildings.

Heating consumes nearly half of the entire world's energy, according to BloombergNEF. Decarbonizing that vast share will amount to a half-trillion-dollar opportunity. Traditional geothermal systems include drilling boreholes into the ground, which is expensive and unrealistic for dense urban cities. New urban geothermal energy technologies that do not include any drilling are being developed.

Enerdrape's Strategic Innovation

Swiss firm Enerdrape has developed a system that taps heat from artificial underground spaces rather than deep boreholes. Its panels are installed on concrete walls and ceilings and capture and store geothermal energy without disturbing the ground.

“There are fewer companies that are actually doing this," said BloombergNEF analyst Stephanie Diaz. "They are a new way of thinking about how to decarbonize buildings."

The technology has especial promise for older multifamily buildings, the bulk of New York's housing stock. More than 64% of the city's residential buildings predate 1960. In those structures, it is generally not possible to fit solar panels or conventional geothermal wells. Enerdrape's urban geothermal energy panels could provide a scalable solution.

How the Technology Works

Enerdrape pre-fabricated panels operate similar to solar panels below ground, but instead of collecting sun, they collect heat. They are installed on subway walls or parking garage facades, and the panels feed back and distribute heat through a fluid system tapped into heat pumps.

During summer, the panels function similar to an air conditioner, redirecting excess heat from buildings into the earth. During winter, they reverse the heat flow, pulling heat from under-ground thermal reservoirs into buildings. The outcome: efficiency throughout the year.

Its panels are capable of providing 100% of space heating, cooling, and hot water requirements of 10-story buildings, according to Enerdrape. Each panel installation is equal to about 110 square feet of building space, so they are ideal for mid-rise residential apartment buildings, and small business buildings.

Scaling Up in New York and Beyond

Founded in 2019, Enerdrape has already established presence in Switzerland, Spain, and France. It partnered with Paris Habitat, France's biggest affordable housing operator, to install 72 dwellings with just 145 panels. The system produced 70 megawatt-hours of heat annually while avoiding 15 tons of CO₂ emissions.

New York is in the company's sights next. New York has pledged to electrify 800,000 homes by 2030 under Governor Kathy Hochul's program, and Local Law 97 mandates emission reductions by many residential buildings. Because most pre-war apartment buildings are under 10 stories, the urban geothermal model is the perfect match.

Opportunities and Challenges

But the startup is not without its issues. Heat pump penetration is greater in Europe than in the United States, where the cost of installation discourages the adoption of the technology. Enerdrape charges a system $100,000–$500,000, based on the building size. Although the technology can produce energy at 3–4 cents per kilowatt hour—far less than the average U.S. 17-cent cost of gas—building owners might be deterred by the initial capital expense.

Policy uncertainty is also a hurdle. Although the Biden administration has been pushing heat pump incentives, past federal rollback created uncertainty regarding the adoption of climate tech. New York's regulatory landscape and climate objectives, however, make it one of the most promising markets for the adoption of urban geothermal energy.

A Maturing Market for Decarbonizing Cities

Experts point out that heat decarbonization is cheapest way for electrification of budget housing. But low-income housing operators are wary of disruptive retrofits. Enerdrape's method, which sidesteps expensive building and forced relocation of residents, can be a game changer.

Thatcher Bell of climate technology accelerator

The Clean Fight saw this potential: "High upfront cost and stakeholder complexity make affordable housing difficult to decarbonize. Solutions like Enerdrape's are designed to address exactly that challenge."

As fuel prices increase around the world and cities begin to enforce tighter emissions controls, the demand for creative solutions will increase. Geothermal energy in cities could become as ubiquitous as solar power on rooftops, particularly in dense cities such as New York with older infrastructure.

The Future of Underground Heat

For the time being, Enerdrape recognizes that its system won't be feasible for skyscrapers or supertall towers that loom over sections of Manhattan. "We're not going to be able to do much with a 60-floor high-rise," co-founder Alessandro Rotta Loria said.

But in a city where most residential buildings are mid-rise, the potential is huge. By turning idle underground space into renewable energy, city geothermal power offers a substitute for the massive drilling campaigns. If it succeeds in New York, it can be applied anywhere in the world—transformational in the way cities warm their citizens in winter and cool them in summer.