Current Customers
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Geothermal Emergencies
For updates or information if a geothermal system outage occurs, please call (208) 608-7200 then press "2" to listen to a recorded message.
TTY: (800) 377-3529
How Geothermal Works
Deep below our earth’s surface runs a natural resource that the City of Boise has been utilizing for more than a century. A river of geothermally heated water flows under our city’s foothills. From heating buildings to sidewalk snowmelt and warming recreational pools, the City of Boise’s geothermal heating utility is innovative, renewable – and sustainable to the core.
Why Geothermal
Competitive Advantage
Adding this to a list of your building’s sustainability factors increases attraction, differentiation, and marketability to tenants and their employees.
Value-Driven Choice for Heating Your Building
Compared to other utility choices, geothermal is not impacted by volatility in natural gas prices. The City of Boise’s dependable heating district is powered by a completely renewable natural resource – right under our feet.
Join the Nation's Largest Geothermal Heating Utility
Hands-on expertise from city staff can help optimize your own building’s system, while incentives make signing up easy.
Sustainable to the Core
Unparalleled
The City of Boise is home to the largest geothermal heating system in the nation, delivering naturally-heated 177° water through a network of pipes to warm over 6 million square feet of building space.
Local and Renewable
A truly closed-loop process, after the water is circulated through the heating district it’s safely added back into the aquifer.
Clean
Minimal electricity is required to power the system’s pump, with no fossil fuels used at any step in the process, this keeps the environmental impact of this resource lower than other heating options.
Where You Can Find It
All around downtown, you'll find geothermal plaques on buildings including JUMP, City Hall, Treasure Valley YMCA, Boise State University and more. Explore for yourself on a 1-mile geothermal walking tour from City Hall to the geothermal injection well in Julia Davis Park.
History of Boise's Geothermal
Boise has used geothermal heat since the 1890s to heat Victorian homes and the original Natatorium. Back then, the cost to use the geothermal heat was just $2 a month for smaller homes and $3 a month for large homes. In 1983, the City of Boise began building the system that is now the largest, municipally-operated geothermal heating utility in the country, with 20 miles of pipes heating 88 buildings throughout downtown Boise.
Boise Warm Springs Water District
If you live within the Warm Springs District boundary, please contact the Boise Warm Springs Water District for geothermal information.
Send a Message to Geothermal
Thank you for your interest in Boise's geothermal system. Please fill out the form below and a representative from Public Works will be in touch with you.