Serene and remarkable, Lakewood Cemetery has provided visitors a place of solace for over 150 years. Situated between Lakes Harriet and Bde Maka Ska, the landmark cemetery houses multiple facilities for welcoming guests and offering funeral services in addition to expansive grounds for visitation and reflection.
Lakewood has embraced a progressive approach to sustainable operations with a geothermal system that subtly blends in with the awe-inspiring architecture and natural environment of the area.
Constructed in 2022, the system uses two 12″ diameter wells combined with a central heat pump to provide thermal comfort throughout all seasons of the year.
Darcy Solutions often discusses and shares project decision making concepts on projects from our customers when available. Below find additional information from Chris Makowske, President of Lakewood Cemetery on their decision making process for the facility and impacts of those choices:
What were the driving factors for Lakewood to choose geothermal?
We chose to pursue a net-zero energy certification for our new Welcome Center because greater sustainability is a goal we’re striving to achieve at Lakewood. Stewardship is one of Lakewood’s core values, and that includes stewardship of the grounds. Geothermal, as part of a net-zero energy building, is part of a broader sustainability strategy that includes preserving our urban tree canopy and moving toward more sustainable landscaping. The design teams we worked with recommended geothermal, among other strategies, to help us achieve the net-zero energy goal for the building.
What impact does this Sustainability have on the different stakeholders associated with the facility?
Many of our customers, neighbors, staff, and leadership care deeply about the natural environment and sustainable practices. It’s important that we honor that by making sustainable choices that support our environment.
Do you intend to capture the Investment Tax Credit for the facility?
Yes, we plan on pursuing the Federal Renewable Energy Tax Credit as part of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
Are there any other notable pieces of information you would want to share?
Using the Darcy well system also helped us preserve precious space that can be used for memorialization in the future. Traditional wells would have taken up a much broader field and limited future memorialization options for those we serve.
Midwest Mechanical Solutions is a manufacturer’s representative of applied mechanical equipment used in HVAC systems, working with Darcy Solutions as an exclusive partner in Minnesota. They are experts in commercial and industrial applied systems of all kinds including chillers, boilers, variable refrigerant flow, rooftop units, direct expansion and much more.
After multiple years of representing Darcy Solutions in the market, MMS decided to install a one well system as the primary thermal capacity for an office expansion in 2022. The system uses one 12″ diameter connected to a VRF building side equipment. Like other elements of their HVAC equipment on within the building, the geothermal equipment is highly visible and used to showcase design considerations to customers.
The company is using the newly constructed geothermal and distribution equipment within the building to capture the Investment Tax Credit.
Renewable Energy Partners is a clean technology project developer working at the heart of the energy transition. With each project the company provides hands-on experiences to educate new generations of the workforce on skills necessary for designing, building, and operating energy projects. The company is focused on solar, energy storage, geothermal technologies and always looking for new renewable and efficient technologies.
This project was a retrofit the existing HVAC system to a one well geothermal design using a central heat pump for heating and cooling. The building is an excellent example of decarbonization possibilities, using a solar array on the roof coupled with an energy storage system to generate and store electricity, which is used to power the geothermal system now in place for heating and cooling throughout the year.
The project started construction in 2022 and was commissioned in the Spring of the following year. REP used the project to capture the Investment Tax Credit available in the Inflation Reduction Act.
St. Paul Pipefitter's Local 455 is a training facility for steamfitting and pipefitting licensed professionals. Since 1904 the organization has been training local skilled workers for HVAC systems and services of all kinds across the Minneapolis / St. Paul metro and beyond. Year after year the organization graduates skilled labor to build the next generation of clean energy infrastructure.
“The Darcy Solutions system is very energy efficient; we have been using it for multiple years for cooling the entire facility. It’s easy to operate and an excellent way to show the skills to build new energy systems we train our teams on every day.” -- Jeremy McConkey, Training Director UA Local 455 JATC.
This is the first commercial Darcy system, consisting of four eight-inch diameter wells situated along the Eastern perimeter of the facility parking lot. Pipefitters has a long history of incorporating new technologies installed by their craft workers.
After initial consideration of a traditional geothermal system, the organization opted for a Darcy system which limited construction in their parking lot, time for installation, and now provides extremely efficient cooling via chilled beams within the building. The site is frequently used as a tour to provide information on equipment and the skilled trades that install them.
Lake Waconia Regional Park is a 164-acre park East of the City of Waconia and a mainstay of leisure for city residents and tourists. The Paradise Commons building is a newly constructed public waterfront services center. The building provides visitors of the Lake Waconia Regional Park access to restrooms, covered seating, gathering spaces and meeting rooms to rent.
This building was constructed using a total of $5M of state and county funding. Buildings that receive funding of this sort are required to meet the B3 SB2030 Standards for energy efficiency. Those requirements led the architecture firm associated with the project to recommend geothermal and solar on the roof. The project includes three total Darcy wells which provide heating and cooling up to 110 tons of capacity.
