Nick Fry, speaking as part of MIT's IAP course RES.ENV-007 Geothermal Energy Networks: Transforming Our Thermal Energy System, compares two approaches to ground-source thermal systems: the individual ground source heat pump and the shared geothermal energy network (GEN). He walks through thermal system performance for each option and lays out the basic network topologies used in different GEN configurations, showing how piping and borehole arrangements change depending on whether a building draws heat alone or shares a loop with neighbors. The talk is part of a January 2025 intensive course developed with HEET, and this session focuses narrowly on the engineering tradeoffs between individual and networked systems rather than policy or economics. It suits viewers who already have some familiarity with heat pump basics and want the technical comparison laid out directly.