Visitors shiver when they enter St. Peter’s-San Pedro Episcopal Church in the heart of Salem’s historic district. And no, it’s not because they’ve received a greeting from the colonial-era dead buried beneath the building.
It’s because Rev. Nathan Ives is trying to cut down on the 18th century church’s astronomical heating bills.
A few years ago, the church’s utility company replaced an old gas meter, and the congregation’s monthly winter heating costs spiked from $100 to $3,000, according to Ives.
“And that’s with me trimming the sails here,” he said, adding that he’s become a fan of chunky sweaters.
The sticker shock sent Ives on an ambitious path to transform the church into a more energy-efficient building. In the process, he’s set the groundwork for a plan to slash the use of climate-warming fossil fuels across the city’s historic downtown.
Old buildings, old problems
The church is a jewel of local lore. It was founded by Philip English, a man who was accused during the Salem Witch Trials but managed to escape and avoid charges. He is buried somewhere beneath the church, alongside many other early colonists.
The dark wooden box pews have been preserved from the original 1733 building, which was renovated and expanded in 1833 to create the softly lit worship hall of today. Many of the church’s notable features are also — in part — what make it a nightmare to keep warm. The walls are dark, uninsulated granite. The vibrant stained glass is shattered or unsealed in places. And the creaky gas boiler is no match for the almost three century-old building’s leaks and drafts.
“We need to find a way to adapt these structures to modern-day, green energy solutions and efficiency,” said Ives. “We’re making plans for another 300, the next 300, and so let’s make sure we do it right.”
The church serves a majority Hispanic congregation and neighborhoods with large portions of low-income residents. The area is recognized by the state as an Environmental Justice Community, meaning it faces disproportionate risks from climate change and other environmental hazards. Ives believes reducing planet-warming emissions is a moral duty to his neighbors.
“I could choose to look the other way,” he said, but “how can you?”
Soon after the gas meter incident, Ives convened a coalition of residents, nonprofit leaders and city officials, and the group came up with a solution they’ve dubbed the “Heaven and Earth Project.”
The “heaven” part of the name refers to a plan to install solar panels on part of the church’s roof, along with a battery. The combination will provide emissions-free energy and offset the expensive utility bills. And, the community will be able to use the space as a refuge in case of blackouts or other weather-related disasters.
The “earth” part refers to geothermal energy, which can power an emissions-free heating and cooling system for the church. Deep beneath the ground, temperatures are a consistent 55 degrees. In the winter, when buildings need warmth, that’s warmer than the air outside. Heat pumps use electricity to move that warmth through a system of underground pipes, amplify the temperatures and deliver it to buildings. In the summer, the system reverses. The heat pumps suck heat out of buildings and send it back into the ground through the pipes.
Ives worked with consultants to determine if it would be possible to extend the system to connect to 20 other properties, forming a geothermal loop that includes affordable housing, museums, offices and retail space. Many of the structures were built in the 1800s and heat with natural gas or fuel oil. Switching to geothermal would dramatically reduce their use of fossil fuels. The system would be more energy efficient than if it served the church alone.
The loop could also be expanded over time to serve additional buildings. In 2024, Eversource installed a similar geothermal network that serves 36 buildings in Framingham. The project is still in a testing phase, and has received federal funding to double in size.
Ives and his collaborators hope their geothermal loop can serve as a model for other historic New England cities and towns, which face a particular dilemma: How to retrofit old buildings to make them more energy efficient, while still preserving their cultural characteristics.
Salem has 1,700 registered historic buildings and an architectural legacy reaching back about 400 years. Like other communities in the Bay State, it has a climate action plan to reduce fossil fuel pollution. Because buildings are the city’s top source of emissions, one of the plan’s main priorities is to cut their use of climate-polluting fuels like natural gas and oil.
Neal Duffy, the city’s sustainability and resilience director, said efforts to electrify individual buildings won’t be enough to meet the plan’s goals, so the Heaven and Earth Project’s whole-block strategy could provide an important boost.
“I just think otherwise we’re never going to get where we need to be,” he said.
Digging in
Salem’s mayor, Dominick Pangallo, recalled his first impression of the networked geothermal project.
“It was exciting,” he said, but “the first thought I had was, ‘this is going to be incredibly complicated.’ ”
Here’s what they’re up against.
Geothermal projects are notoriously expensive to install. High costs are one reason National Grid called off a planned geothermal network in Lowell in 2025. In Salem, the Heaven and Earth team must raise $30 million to launch its loop.
Installation calls for crews to drill 450 holes, each hundreds of feet deep, and lay the pipes required for the heating and cooling system. Pangallo said one potential site is the city’s historic 8-acre common, which would temporarily tear up the park grounds. After construction, the grass would be replanted and the park restored, but some residents have expressed concern the work would disrupt daily life, events and tourism.
“It’s by no means a done deal,” said Pangallo, but “it’s worth at least asking the question if that’s the place we should be looking.”
Another big question: Who should own the geothermal loop? The infrastructure is complex and could be expensive to maintain. Utility companies have experience laying and repairing pipes, but the Heaven and Earth team is gunning for Salem residents to own the system.
“What I want for everyone is for them to have a relationship and an ownership of their own energy systems,” said Abigail Despres, a project manager on the Heaven and Earth team, “so that when you think about paying your bill, or you think about where your energy is coming from, it’s a commodity that you have direct influence over.”
There’s very little precedent for this type of community-owned geothermal, said Zeyneb Magavi, executive director of the pro-thermal energy group HEET, which helped coordinate a feasibility study for the Salem project, funded by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center.
But it’s an interesting idea, Magavi said. She says that geothermal can be an effective heating solution for older buildings, which often need extensive upgrades like new electrical wiring, mold and asbestos remediation and insulation before they can install more climate-friendly heating systems.
“If you use the most efficient technology, it gives you the largest margin on your bill to cover the cost of those building retrofits,” she said.
And geothermal is particularly good at heating spaces that may never be perfectly sealed, she said, one of the challenges with older and historic structures.
The Heaven and Earth team is planning to conduct more in-depth analyses to see what type of work each building will need.
At St. Peter’s-San Pedro, they’ll have to rip open floors to install new insulation, revealing all the old colonial graves. Church leaders say they plan to count them and determine who rests there. They said they will prioritize being respectful of the dead.
“I think at a certain point, the technology of the building itself, the infrastructure conversations […] will sort of recede,” said Thomas Piñeros Shields, a worshipper at the church and collaborator on the Heaven and Earth Project, “and we’ll have this space that is usable.”
Even though it won’t be easy, Rev. Ives says he’s willing to move heaven and earth to get it done.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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