Vermont Gas will pay for and own the underground geothermal loops that heat and cool 36 affordable apartments at Riggs Meadow in Hinesburg. The utility and Dandelion Energy, a residential geothermal company, announced the partnership Oct. 1. Dandelion will design the system and drill the wells.
A ground loop is a run of pipe buried in deep holes in the ground. Water pumped through it pulls heat from the earth in winter and sheds it there in summer, and electric heat pumps inside each building do the rest.
Vermont Gas owns the ground loops. Champlain Housing Trust, which includes utilities in its rents, will pay Vermont Gas $25 to $35 a month per apartment to use them, so tenants won’t get a separate bill. In an earlier estimate reported in March, Vermont Gas put the cost of drilling and installing the loops at about $275,000, roughly $7,600 per apartment. The money comes from a fund state regulators let the utility set aside for trying new low-emission technology.
Riggs Meadow’s first phase has 44 homes, but the geothermal system serves only the 36 apartments in its four multifamily buildings. The other eight are shared-equity homes for sale, built with Green Mountain Habitat for Humanity.
The system is smaller than originally planned. Vermont Gas initially pursued a shared geothermal network with federal support, but funding was frozen in January 2025. The utility switched to a less expensive design with separate underground loops for each apartment building.
The schedule has slipped. In May, Vermont Gas told the House energy committee that drilling would start this summer. It’s now set for early 2027, with residents moving in late that year.
Vermont Gas says it wants to offer geothermal to other homebuilders as the state pushes to build more housing. In May it told legislators it is already exploring projects with multiple local developers.