Seven Maine businesses are getting funds from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development to help with the costs of renewable energy and efficiency improvements.
Two Aroostook County farms, GrandyOats in Hiram and four other businesses in coastal communities have received a collective $66,000 in grants under the ongoing Rural Energy for America Program, or REAP. The projects range from solar panel arrays to software-controlled potato storage and LED lighting.
“These systems will help the businesses to be sustainable now and in the future, retaining critical jobs in Maine’s rural communities,” said USDA Rural Development State Director Virginia Manuel, who was in Caribou speaking at the Maine Potato Conference.
In The County, Irving Farms in Caribou is receiving $2,656 from the REAP program to upgrade two potato storage ventilation fans. The upgrade will include new motors, adjustable frequency and a software-based control that regulates heat and will save an estimated 14,000 kilowatt hours of energy annually, about what an average home consumes.
G&S Farms in Fort Kent is receiving $2,743 for a similar upgrade of two existing potato storage ventilation fans and to replace an incandescent lighting system with LED fixtures. Altogether, the farm estimates it will save about 15,000 kilowatt hours of electricity.
The four other businesses were awarded grants for solar photovoltaic systems.
GrandyOats, an organic farm and granola company in Hiram, is getting $20,000 to help pay for a new 80.64 kW solar system, which should produce 95,000 kilowatt hours of electricity annually. The project makes GrandyOats New England’s first net-zero food facility.
Kremer Glass in North Yarmouth is getting $7,723 for a 19 kW solar system that will be used to power a new glass production studio.
MDI Clean Energy Partners in Bar Harbor is getting $3,601 to install a new 6.24 kilowatt solar array on a tractor parking canopy structure at the Peggy Rockefeller Farms at the College of the Atlantic.
Mount Pleasant Dental Care in Rockport is receiving $9,573 for a 12.50 kilowatt solar array, and Belcon in Belfast is receiving $19,894 to install a 26 kilowatt solar system at Colonial Gables Oceanfront Village — enough for about a quarter of its annual electricity.