Boise has the oldest and largest direct-use geothermal system in the country. Hot, 177-degree water is piped from the Military Reserve to downtown buildings and then to campus. On campus, this hot water passes through heat exchangers to extract the heat and warm our buildings. After the heat is extracted, the geothermal water is injected back into the aquifer.
Geothermal pipes running under select campus sidewalks also melt snow in the winter, reducing both natural gas usage and the need for manual snow removal.
The following buildings use geothermal heating:
- Administration Building
- Morrison Center
- Mathematics Building
- Westmark Student Union Building
- Multi-Purpose Classroom Building
- Interactive Teaching and Learning Center
- Micron Business and Economics Building
- Alumni and Friends Center
- Center for Visual Arts
- Environmental Research Building
- Micron Center for Materials Research