A project proposed for North Mahoning Township could be the first step in revolutionizing energy production in Pennsylvania. CNX Resources Corporation, working with the Department of Environmental Protection and a number of other entities, on a geothermal pilot program in Marchand, hopes to use old Marcellus Shale wells or drill new holes deep into the earth to extract heat from the rocks deep underground and turn it into energy.
As detailed in an article last week by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Anya Litvak, the budget for the project is $37.6 million, and the group is hoping the U.S. Department of energy will fund it through a grant from the Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act of 2021.
Rock as shallow as 8,000 feet underground is hot enough to boil water, and it’s throughout Pennsylvania. In Marchand, it was 231 degrees. The energy extracted from it would heat liquid, which would be turned into gas and produce electricity.
The Trump administration stopped the grant program by executive order, but portions of it have reopened, including geothermal projects. A Penn State study shows that geothermal energy could produce 1,000 times more heat that Pennsylvanians currently consume each year.
