WEST UNION, Iowa—From the billboard on the edge of town to the limestone monument on Vine Street, the signs are hard to miss: “West Union, Deeply Connected.” It’s a motto that could apply to many tight-knit farm towns across the Midwest where families date back generations.

But in this town of 2,500, the words have additional meaning.

Buried beneath the front lawn of the county courthouse and town square are 132 boreholes, each 300 feet deep. Pipes connected to the bores run below the surrounding blocks, providing downtown businesses with year-round geothermal energy. The high-efficiency, fossil-fuel-free heating and cooling system owned by the town was one of the first municipal thermal networks in the country when it began operating in 2014.

For Steve Fate, the president of West Union

See Full Page