GeoAlliance grant program now closed

A $50,000 GeoAlliance grant presented to Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC) President Glenn Poshard (center) by Egyptian Electric Cooperative Association Member Services Manager Bryce Cramer and Association of Illinois Electric Cooperative’s Marketing Administrator Nancy McDonald was just one of the 51 grants that helped fund geothermal heat pump heating and ­cooling systems like the one in the Stone Center at SIUC.
A $50,000 GeoAlliance grant presented to Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC) President Glenn Poshard (center) by Egyptian Electric Cooperative Association Member Services Manager Bryce Cramer and Association of Illinois Electric Cooperative’s Marketing Administrator Nancy McDonald was just one of the 51 grants that helped fund geothermal heat pump heating and ­cooling systems like the one in the Stone Center at SIUC.

The GeoAlliance geothermal grant program, which was developed by the Association of Illinois Electric Cooperatives in Springfield and Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation in Chicago, is now closed. Throughout four phases of the ­program, which spanned more than 10 years, nearly $1.5 million was provided to not-for-profit and public entities located in Illinois cooperative territories as an incentive to install geothermal equipment.

While some projects are still under construction or in the ­process of beginning construction, the final ­project was recently approved. In all, the GeoAlliance grant ­program funded 51 projects from small churches to large univer­sities in the service areas of 16 Illinois ­cooperatives, with approximate ­savings of 8,730,530 kilowatt hours, equating to about $628,600 per year.

In addition to the monthly savings they’ll see from using geothermal technology, GeoAlliance grantees have also saved between one-third and one-half of the incremental dif­ference between the cost of a geothermal system and the cost of a traditional HVAC system as an incentive to install the most energy efficient, safe and ecologically friendly systems possible.

For more information about geothermal technology, or the Geothermal Alliance of Illinois, please contact John Freitag, vice president of operations at the AIEC, at 217-241-7973 or at jfreitag@aiec.coop.