A Salem church leads charge to wean downtown off fossil fuels and lower electricity bills. Needed: cash to build.

Boston Globe

26-06-2025

The abrupt price hike thrust the church's ambition to wean itself from fossil fuels into overdrive. Now the church is looking into an ambitious renewable energy project to bake in long-term cost savings, but at an upfront cost in the tens of millions.
As he described the project in his church's office, the gregarious parish priest constantly fielded calls, responded to texts, and greeted visitors. Ives switched seamlessly between English and Spanish as discussions ranged from a recent meeting on reparations, to preparations for Sunday services, to the new project called 'Heaven and Earth,' a proposed solar and geothermal network that would provide heating and cooling for much of downtown Salem.
The solar — or 'heaven' — portion of the project would retrofit the 19th-century church with solar panels and batteries, transforming the building into a climate resilience hub.
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The 'earth' part of the proposal calls for a roughly mile-and-a-quarter geothermal loop connecting 21 buildings, including public housing, museums, condos, commercial space, Salem's City Hall, and the church, which was founded on land donated by a wealthy merchant accused of witchcraft during the hysteria that consumed Salem in the late 1600s.
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Ally Rzesa/Paul Horn, Inside Climate News
Today, the congregation includes many low-income residents from a largely Latino neighborhood known as
For Ana Nuncio, a member of the vestry, or parish council, and a founder of the Latino Leadership Coalition of Salem, the proposed solar and geothermal project has a strong biblical connection.
''I saw a new heaven and a new earth,'' she said, quoting the Book of Revelation.
Nuncio said the project is an extension of work the church already does, writing checks to members of the congregation who are least able to pay the soaring costs of winter heating bills.
'What we're trying to do at St. Peter's is to bring relief,' she said, but also 'show that there can be a different way.'
Last year the church received a $50,000 'Kickstart' grant, funded by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and administered by the Boston-based nonprofit HEET, to begin developing the geothermal portion of its proposal. The grant was
Salem's geothermal loop would circulate water mixed with antifreeze beneath city streets and connect to 450 boreholes drilled beneath Salem Common, a historic 9-acre park in the city center. Each borehole would be approximately 500 feet deep, tapping into subsurface thermal energy where temperatures are a steady 56 degrees year round.
The pipes would harness this thermal energy for heating in winter and cooling in summer.
The proposal was outlined in
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Eight of the 21 buildings included in the report belong to the Peabody Essex Museum, one of the oldest art museums in the country. The museum had previously looked at installing its own geothermal system, but the high relative cost of a smaller system led officials to decide against it.
'We thought geothermal was a little out of reach for us in our initial assessments,' said Kurt Steinberg, the museum's chief operating officer. But he said that a communitywide project, and the economy of scale that comes with it, helps bring down the cost for everyone.
'And then it's not just you,' he said. 'You're all in it together.'
The goal of the project goes beyond saving money. Salem has a goal of zeroing out
'We need to be thinking about projects like this to come anywhere close to reaching those goals, rather than one building at a time,' said Neal Duffy the city's director of sustainability and resiliency.
Tina Jordan, executive director of the Salem Witch Museum, was one of more than a dozen community and business leaders who contributed to the report by sharing energy usage information.
'We want to hear, is this something that would be good for the neighborhood, the environment, and the community, and is it something we can afford?' Jordan said.
The project would cost $56 million for the bore field and geothermal loop, according to the feasibility report. The figure does not include heat pumps, ductwork, or other modifications that may be required for individual buildings.
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Federal tax credits could cut out-of-pocket costs by as much as half. However, a federal budget reconciliation bill making its way through Congress could end most Biden-era clean energy tax credits.
The House version, passed in May, wouldn't immediately eliminate credits for commercial-scale geothermal projects but would end them three years earlier than planned. Projects would need to begin construction before Jan. 1, 2032. A draft of the Senate bill would preserve the existing Jan. 1, 2035, deadline for large scale geothermal heating and cooling projects.
The clock is ticking to get the project started and address the big question: How would the community come up with all that extra money?
Figuring out how to finance all of this, who will pay, or whether they need to scale back ambitions, are the next steps that project proponents are grappling with. In other communities, the city has contributed funds for large-scale energy projects, but Salem's mayor was noncommittal on that idea.
Eric Bosworth oversaw the Framingham geothermal project when he worked for Eversource. Now running the consultancy Thermal Energy Insights, he praised the initial feasibility assessment for Salem but questioned some of the projected costs. He thinks the work could be done for less money.
Lawrence Lessard, president of the New England Geothermal Professional Association and the director of Achieve Renewable Energy, which co-prepared the report, said the cost figures were preliminary, conservative, and based on the best available information.
National Grid, the gas utility for Salem, is not currently involved in the Salem project but is supportive of it, said Christine Milligan, a spokeswoman for the company.
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Meanwhile, Ives continues to pursue outside funding opportunities. He also systematically dials down thermostats and layers up during the winter.
Reverend Nathan W. Ives in front of St. Peter's-San Pedro Episcopal Church in Salem.
Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff
A self-described 'sweater guy,' he raves about Icelandic sweaters and their triple-spun wool, which he says are 'wicked warm.'
For the next few months, staying warm won't be a challenge. However, he dreads the fall, when he'll have to restart the church's aging steam boiler, a time when the heating system is most prone to failing.
The church spent $10,000 on boiler repairs this past year alone, Ives said.
'We have to do something quickly, or as quickly as we can,' he said.
This story is published in partnership with
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