Did you know that the city of Boise has the oldest and largest direct-use geothermal system in the country? Hot water from underground hot springs is piped from the foothills to many downtown buildings and across the river to the Boise State campus. On our campus, this hot water is run through heat exchangers, which extract the heat from the water and transfer it into our buildings. After the heat is extracted, the geothermal water goes into a return pipe and is pumped back into the aquifer.
The following buildings utilize geothermal heating:
- Administration Building
- Morrison Center
- Mathematics Building
- Student Union Building
- Multi-Purpose Classroom Building
- Interactive Teaching and Learning Center
- Micron Business and Economics Building
- Alumni & Friends Center
- Center For Visual Arts
- Environmental Research Building
- Micron Center for Materials Research