Originally developed in 1918 as an air base for the U.S. Army, Penn Field is an approximately 228,000-square-foot, 16-acre, mixed-use property located in Austin’s South Congress (“SoCo”) Business District and is owned by Creative Media & Community Trust Corporation (CMCT), a real estate investment trust operated by CIM Group. The partnership with Bedrock allowed CIM Group to design Penn Field with sustainability in mind, reducung its dependence on fossil fuels, lowering energy consumption, and cutting costs related to heating and cooling the office building.
“At Penn Field we are pursuing decarbonization of our existing buildings utilizing Bedrock Energy’s innovative approach to geothermal heating and cooling systems. This initial project with Bedrock Energy is one of many programs that we are supporting to both deliver on our sustainability goals as well as demonstrate the potential of these technologies,” said Avi Shemesh, Co-Founder and Principal, CIM Group
The geothermal HVAC system will provide 35 tons of heating and cooling for four tenants of Building D and was delivered with the partnership of Interface Engineering, a leading MEP engineering firm, and Climate Solutions, a top HVAC services firm in Austin. The project was finished in three months with the help of Bedrock’s team of technologists, operational engineers, and implementation crew members.
The completion of the Austin project follows Bedrock’s $8.5M seed funding round announcement in October 2023. The financing round was led by Wireframe Ventures, with participation from CIM Group, Overture Climate VC, Long Journey Ventures, Toba Capital, Cantos, First Star Ventures, Divergent Capital, and Climate Capital.
“As an investor with an extensive pipeline of projects across climate sectors, we recognize the importance and need of sustainable heating and cooling, especially for cost savings,” said Danya Hakeem, VP of Portfolio at Elemental Excelerator, a nonprofit investor focused on scaling climate technology for deep community impact
Bedrock’s drilling rig employs technologies that enable widespread, affordable, and accessible installations of carbon-free geothermal HVAC for commercial buildings
Photo Credit: Bedrock Energy
Designing more efficient borefields
The proprietary design and construction technologies of Bedrock Energy allow them to design borefields that are more space-efficient and have higher performance. The novel technologies combine automated drilling and advanced subsurface modeling to triple drilling speed, increase space-efficiency, and improve subsurface accuracy.
For Penn Field’s Building D, Bedrock’s modeling and construction enabled the company to limit the borefield to 11 bores, versus the approximately 30 bores that would have been specified with conventional technologies.
In addition to the advantages of Bedrock’s approach, its role as an end-to-end construction manager for geothermal projects, enables the company to install geothermal HVAC systems in dense, urban locations, such as Austin, where projects were previously too costly or complex.
“Our team is thrilled to bring something truly special to Texas with our first geothermal project. This installation demonstrates how the energy beneath our feet offers not only comfort but also savings, reliability, and innovation,” said Joselyn Lai, Co-Founder & CEO of Bedrock Energy.
“Geothermal can strengthen our grid, support our businesses, create jobs, and help our communities thrive. We’re grateful to CIM for partnering with us to demonstrate this value on a historic building like Penn Field, and we’re excited for our team and technology to deliver clean heating and cooling to many more communities to come.”
