{"id":193228,"date":"2026-05-15T11:31:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T11:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/193228\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T11:31:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T11:31:15","slug":"pennsylvania-greenhouse-stays-warm-by-storing-heat-underground-yale-climate-connections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/193228\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania greenhouse stays warm by storing heat underground \u00bb Yale Climate Connections"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Transcript:<\/p>\n<p>Heated greenhouses let farmers grow some crops year-round \u2013 even in cold climates. But oftentimes, the heat comes from burning propane, which is expensive and warms the climate.<\/p>\n<p>Tim Clymer, co-owner of Threefold Farm in Pennsylvania, says he\u2019ll sometimes drive by a commercial greenhouse.<\/p>\n<p>Clymer: \u201cAnd see the exhaust coming out of there, and I know how much fuel they\u2019re burning through.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So he built what he calls a <a href=\"https:\/\/threefold.farm\/climate-battery-greenhouse \" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">climate battery greenhouse<\/a> instead.<\/p>\n<p>On warm, sunny days when the greenhouse naturally heats up, fans blow warm air into a network of underground tubes that heat the soil around them.<\/p>\n<p>Then, when it\u2019s cold, the system works in reverse. Fans draw the heat out of the earth and back into the greenhouse.<\/p>\n<p>Clymer: \u201cWe\u2019re using the soil as a big thermal battery. So regular batteries store electrical energy, we\u2019re storing heat energy in the soil.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Clymer built his greenhouse nine years ago and uses it to grow figs, Meyer lemons, satsuma mandarins, and other citrus fruits.<\/p>\n<p>He also started a company that sells greenhouse design plans and consults with other farmers to share what he\u2019s learned.<\/p>\n<p>So more farmers can invest in this approach for heating greenhouses without heating the climate.<\/p>\n<p>Reporting credit: Sarah Kennedy \/ ChavoBart Digital Media \/ Thanks to PASA Sustainable Agriculture for logistical support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Transcript: Heated greenhouses let farmers grow some crops year-round \u2013 even in cold climates. But oftentimes, the heat&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193229,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,66],"class_list":["post-193228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}