Little Rock airport’s geothermal wells will help heat and cool facility while slashing natural gas use, officials say

A network of hundreds of geothermal wells, each one plunging hundreds of feet underground, is taking shape at Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field in Little Rock as part of an overhaul of the complex’s utility systems.

Work on the well field started in August 2025. Drilling and grouting of the wells themselves finished in May, according to David Finnie, the director of infrastructure development for the airport.

Each well descends 500 feet below the surface. Temperatures that deep underground remain fairly constant year-round, even as the seasons change and atmospheric temperatures rise and fall.

By pumping water or other fluid through geothermal wells, those stable temperatures can be harnessed for heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems.

Crews at the airport are now linking the wells in groups of around 25 wells known as circuits, which are then each tied to a vault that routes hot and cold water flowing through the system, Finnie said in an interview.

“It’s kind of a complex little system,” he said.

When completed, water will be circulated through the system in a closed loop, allowing for efficient heating and cooling of the airport terminal.

Officials expect the project will eliminate all natural gas usage at the airport, Finnie said, with the exception of cooking needs at restaurants in the concourse.

The well field is located to the east of the airport terminal and north of an employee parking lot, with some wells located on the east side of the lot.

Officials eventually plan to construct a new parking lot on top of the well field, Finnie said. He estimated that the well field consists of about six acres, or around one-third of the size of the future parking lot.

Officials are pursuing the geothermal project in conjunction with an effort to construct a new central utility plant. Rerouting the airport’s utility infrastructure inside the new plant will allow crews to renovate the terminal to add a new arrivals hall and post-security common area over the coming years.

Finnie estimated construction of the central utility plant will conclude in the summer of 2027. Once it is complete, the geothermal well field will go online, he said.

In 2024, the airport was awarded $7.5 million from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to help pay for the geothermal well field project. The funding was part of a nearly $100 million award to a coalition of Arkansas regional planning organizations through the Climate Pollution Reduction Grants program, created through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Metroplan, the metropolitan planning organization for Central Arkansas, led the coalition.

The total cost of the airport geothermal project will be close to $39 million, with additional support from a Federal Aviation Administration low-emissions grant program as well as tax credits, according to Finnie.

The overall central utility plant project is being overseen by a joint venture between Clark Contractors of Little Rock and Con-Real, a company based in Texas. The subcontractor performing the “lion’s share” of the geothermal project is Kentucky-based Geothermal Earthworks, Finnie said.