Market warming to Biddeford solar heat company
Photo / Darren Fishell
Mick Dunn, owner of the Biddeford-based Shift Energy LLC, has turned his company's focus exclusively to solar heating systems that are, in new buildings, competitively priced against other cladding options.
Courtesy of Shift Energy LLC
A graphical rendering of the solar wall from Shift Energy LLC, installed at the Augusta Civic Center. The solar system, manufactured by a Quebec company, was installed by the Brunswick-based New England Energy Solutions.
At the end of this month, the south-facing wall of the Augusta Civic Center will have a new function: heating the entire events center.
Mick Dunn, owner of the Biddeford-based Shift Energy LLC, says a solar, 4,350-square-foot installation over the former brick wall will allow the civic center to bring in air at space-heating temperatures throughout sunny winter days, even when temperatures drop to 30 degrees Fahrenheit.
“Maine’s perfect for what we’re doing,” says Dunn, a native of Melbourne, Australia.
Dunn’s four-person company is the primary U.S. distributor and installer for the brand of solar wall technology that will start heating the civic center. The product is manufactured by the Magog, Quebec-based Enerconcept Technologies, with which Dunn’s company inked a distribution agreement in 2011.
Since then, Dunn says Shift’s business has grown through projects across the Northeast. This year, he expects the company will install from 75,000 square feet to 100,000 square feet of solar wall space. In 2008, years before the solar energy company focused on commercial markets, Dunn says the company installed just around 5,000 square feet of solar wall units.
The wall installation, made of a heat-absorbing black backing and metal-framed polycarbonate panels, holds columns of air. The air is heated by the sun before fans situated near the top of the wall direct the heated air inside. The system is calibrated to take in air at a rate that will ensure the delivery of a steady stream of hot air into the building.
To explain, Dunn compares it to a water hose that has been sitting in the sun: opening the spigot to a trickle will maintain a steady flow of warm water.
“If you want more [warm] water, you need more hose if you want to maintain temperature,” Dunn says. “And that’s basically the product we design.”
So far, Dunn says the company’s early adopters have been municipal and nonprofit entities — both of which can apply for grants to defer costs and are generally not as demanding about the timetable for a return on the initial investment as for-profit enterprises.
The Augusta installation is part of a larger city-driven effort to reduce energy demands at major municipal facilities. Last summer, the Augusta City Council approved $2 million in energy projects at the civic center, the Augusta City Center and the Buker Community Center, all of which the city projected would save $4.3 million in heating costs over 20 years, according to the Kennebec Journal.
Dana Colwill, director of the civic center, says the $400,000 solar heating system and other ventilation system improvements will help building operators displace some of the propane it now uses for heat. Eventually, the civic center has plans to convert to natural gas as a heating fuel, which is expected to cut the building’s heating costs even further.
According to Brent Dudley, project manager for the city’s overall energy upgrades and owner of the Brunswick-based New England Energy Solutions, the expected payback will be just under 12 years for the solar heating and ventilation upgrades.
Dunn says private customers typically seek a payback in five to 10 years. That is possible, especially with new construction, where these solar heat installations are comparable in cost to other cladding options.
“We’re about the same cost as brick [cladding], so if you just didn’t do brick [on a wall] then you would just get free solar [heat],” Dunn says.
Elsewhere in New England, Dunn says his company is seeing more activity from private sector clients, partly due to ample solar subsidies in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, which go beyond the 30% federal tax credit available for solar and wind power installations. Maine state subsidies for solar and wind through Efficiency Maine were depleted earlier this year, but businesses can claim accelerated depreciation on the solar installations, which Dunn says can produce a payback of closer to five years.
Regardless of the amount of government subsidies available, other trends could also work in Dunn’s favor.
“When the cost of energy goes up, the private sector gets more and more interested [in alternative energies],” Dunn says.
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