Dandelion Energy looks to expand residential geothermal operations

Dandelion Energy is working to lower carbon emission reducing the dependence on fossil fuels for American homeowners.

Dandelion Energy, which was a part of Alphabet X innovation lab, conceived by Google, recently announced that it will be bringing its geothermal system to U.S. homes to provide affordable heating and cooling solutions.

The company has been reported to have completed a $16 million Series A round of funding that was led by Google Ventures and Comcast Ventures, raising the company’s total funding to $23 million. Dandelion Energy has been working across the New York State and is aiming to expand its operations, increase research, expand its team and open new warehouses.

Dandelion Energy’s focus is similar to that of other clean energy companies like Tesla that are working to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels for American homeowners. For the record, oil furnaces are one of the most common means of heating for American households, which can be not only costly but also dangerous. It has been estimated that 2,500-square-foot Victorian house in the area spends nearly $3,500 for heating during the winter as well as $300 in the summer for air conditioning. Dandelion offers geothermal energy solutions that can significantly cut these costs.

Dandelion Energy uses Air which is a heating and cooling system that can harvest energy from the ground. Dandelion’s geothermal residential systems are expected to be preferable over the other such geothermal systems as the diggings involved in Dandelion’s projects are much more efficient while being comparatively clean.

Like other geothermal heat pumps, Air utilizes the underground temperature difference from the outside air. This means that the system would move heat from the ground, if the ground is warmer, to heat the house. Similarly in summers, the system would pump warm air to outside and underground. The entire process will be automated and managed by software.

Geothermal heating and cooling systems are receiving greater attention as they can be critical to lowering carbon emissions in the environment. In 2018, US carbon emissions rose by 3.4% mainly owing to unusually cold weather at the beginning of the year which led to more fossil fuel-powered heating. The use of geothermal solutions could have helped in notably lowering such worrying figures.