“Dear me,” Wes Consinn mumbled as he shuffled down the sidewalk, “how are we ever going to find and pay for enough electricity?  New energy-thirsty artificial intelligence (AI) centers are moving in, and we’re already paying more for electricity than our neighboring states.

        “One bugaboo is supplying those relatively rare peak-energy-use times like during sweltering summer afternoons.  That’s when expensive ‘peaker’ plants are fired up.  Now the utilities want to build a brand-new gas-fired ‘peaker’ for the hefty sum of $1.2 billion!  There’s gotta be a better way.”

        Lost in thought, Wes happened to glance up at the placard above a shop door - No Hocus No Pocus - Energy Solutions.  He stepped inside. “Hocus pocus, huh!  What do you guys do, conjure up cheap energy?” he chided the proprietor.

        “Not at all,” Ray Sourceful smiled, “although the results do seem almost magical. We just make better use of energy that’s already been generated.  Want to avoid expensive, polluting peaker plants?  Let me clue you in on a couple key concepts - Distributed Energy Resources (DER)s and Virtual Power Plants (VPP)s.

            “DERs generate and store energy from a variety of sources including solar and battery storage systems at community solar farms, businesses and homes, or from electric vehicles (EV)s and even by using smart thermostats.  Energy from these sources can be used during peak energy use periods through virtual power plants.

            “The almost-magical quality of VPPs is that they provide energy without having to build a physical power plant. Partners in a VPP agree and get paid for letting the VPP draw electricity when needed during peak energy use periods.  I.E. A smart thermostat could temporarily kick the AC up a couple degrees or an EV sitting idle in the garage could discharge part of its battery into the grid for a few hours.  VPPs can be created and deployed in way less time than it takes to construct a generation plant and at a fraction of the cost,“ Ray concluded.

            Wes smiled as he left the shop. “Golly, I’ve got work to do!  It’s a little embarrassing, but I’m way behind my neighboring states concerning policies that advance the use of DERs and VPPs.  We should be lowering energy costs and reducing pollution because, after all, this is our only home.  It’s where we’re all forever… Earthbound.”

       “Good morning! This is Wendy Skies here with Saul R. Panells. Welcome to this week’s edition of Harness Racing, the weekly show reminding us that free, limitless energy sources are all around.  The race is on to harness these sources and create that cleaner, prosperous world we all want.” 

       “You know Wendy, folks often forget or just don’t realize that extraction and consumption of limited sources of energy is not the only route to prosperity.  Fossil fuels are oh-so twentieth century!  And their greenhouse gas emissions are doing a number on our environment.  Enough with the forest fires and hurricanes already!”

       “That’s right Saul, and it’s why I can’t wait to introduce our guest. This week we’re digging deep into a little-known technology that accesses free, endless energy.  Sounds enticing, doesn’t it?  Well, Ken Drillwell is here to tell us all about ground source heat pumps.  Ken, welcome to the show!”

       “Thanks Wendy; it’s great to be here.  Maybe I can start by telling the folks just what we’re talking about.  Ground source heat pumps(GSHP) harness low-temperature geothermal energy to heat and cool homes. They’re similar to the more widely deployed air source heat pumps.  Both can heat or cool a building.  The big difference is that air source pumps have to work with whatever temperature the air happens to be, ranging from fridge to sweltering.  However, ground source heat pumps draw energy from underground wells drilled several hundred feet down, or fields of pipes buried just beneath the surface of the earth.  That’s where temperatures are about 54 degrees Fahrenheit year-round making GSHPs very efficient.

       “The U.S. Dept. of Energy recently reported that GSHPs are posed to heat & cool the equivalent of 7 million homes by 2035—up from just over 1 million today.  That’s equivalent to keeping dozens of coal or gas-fired power plants offline during peak energy use periods. The technology is so cost effective that several universities, non-profits and even gas technology companies are working to develop neighborhood-scale geothermal heating and cooling systems,” Ken concluded.

       “Ground sourced heat pumps,” Wendy exclaimed, “another great example of why we need to ‘flip the script’ concerning energy sources.  We’re surrounded by free, clean, inexhaustible energy that only needs to be harnessed.  So climb on board!  We’re off to the races to protect our only home where we’re all forever… Earthbound.”