Epic Systems campus leads with massive geothermal system

Compared to other software facilities, the Epic Systems Campus stands out with buildings designed after fantastic locations such as the Emerald City from “The Wizard of Oz” and Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. What’s going underneath the campus, however, has heads turning over geothermal technology and building energy use.

A series of geothermal pumps conditions the Epic campus almost entirely on their own, with a geothermal network running as deep as 500 feet and containing thousands of miles of piping. Many pipes only transport water, while gas infrastructure is used for a few special heating applications.

Epic said it has one of the largest geothermal systems in the world, and the campus serves as a case study for the U.S. Department of Energy.

The campus, located in Verona, Wis., has around 40 connected buildings and has around 9 million square feet of building space, DOE officials said. The campus is around 1,670 acres and has enough auditorium space to seat around 18,000 people, a campus fact sheet showed.

The geothermal system includes four bore fields with more than 6,000 wells, a stormwater lake and a quarry lake to trap heat, and cooling support for a 3.5-megawatt data center. Salas O’Brien, a national engineering firm, designed and implemented the renewable energy system more than a decade ago. The system project is ongoing, according to the engineering firm.

The geothermal system is complemented by heat reduction through rooftop gardens, wind turbines, solar photovoltaics and energy-efficient building envelopes, DOE officials said. With those elements combined, campus buildings consume around 25% less energy than other commercial buildings in the same climate, they added.

“Beyond the energy savings, the geothermal system has resulted in goodwill from the local community and the worldwide healthcare network. It also resonates with the talent Epic seeks to recruit,” said Derek Schnabel, facilities director at Epic, in a statement.

Epic develops medical record software used by 305 million patients across the U.S. Serving healthcare patients requires around-the-clock operations, and the company said its geothermal systems helps meet that standard of reliability.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison has monitored Epic’s geothermal system since it was installed in 2012. Researchers track air and soil temperatures, subsurface water flow and water levels in the quarry pond to understand system performance, DOE officials said.

The company hopes the knowledge will be shared and used to improve geothermal technology, officials added.