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What Is that?: Going Geothermal

The city buildings of Prairie Village, KS will soon be heated by a massive geothermal system that lies just below this deceivingly minor looking construction project.
Photo by Alex Smith/KCUR.
The city buildings of Prairie Village, KS will soon be heated by a massive geothermal system that lies just below this deceivingly minor looking construction project.

By Alex Smith

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kcur/local-kcur-986788.mp3

KANSAS CITY, MO – The City Hall, police station, and community building of Prairie Village, KS will soon have their temperatures regulated by a geothermal heating system venturing more than four hundred feet underground.

This low maintenance alternative energy system taps into the constant temperatures just below the earth's surface to cool a building in the summer and heat it in winter.

It is funded in part by a grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Even when the project is complete, passersby and residents of Prairie Village will notice little more than a few protrusions poking out of the ground near City Hall, reports KCUR's Alex Smith, who brings you this installment of our series What is that?

This story was produced for KC Currents. To listen on your own schedule, subscribe to the KC Currents Podcast.

As a health care reporter, I aim to empower my audience to take steps to improve health care and make informed decisions as consumers and voters. I tell human stories augmented with research and data to explain how our health care system works and sometimes fails us. Email me at alexs@kcur.org.
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