ReVision Energy gets Maine Audubon solar installation contract
IMAGE / MAINE AUDUBON
Maine Audubon's planned installation of six solar tracking arrays (panels) on the ground of its Gilsland Farm campus in Falmouth. The tracking arrays can move to follow the sun. A seventh solar panel will go on the roof of the Environmental Center.
ReVision Energy, a solar energy equipment company based in Portland, has a contract valued at $238,761 to supply solar panels and other equipment to Maine Audubon’s Gilsland Farm Audubon Center starting Oct. 27.
Both ReVision and Maine Audubon confirmed the agreement to Mainebiz. A third party, Moody’s Collision Centers, will pay for the installation, and Maine Audubon will buy power for the next six years from a yet-to-be named limited liability corporation to be formed by Moody’s to handle the power purchases.
“We will install six solar tracking arrays [panels] on the Gilsland Farm campus in Falmouth,” ReVision co-founder Phil Coupe said. The tracking arrays can move to follow the sun, he added.
A seventh solar panel will be placed on the roof of Maine Audubon’s Environmental Center, said Michelle Smith, communications and marketing manager for the nonprofit. She added that the installation should serve 84% of the nonprofit’s electricity needs in the two buildings on the Falmouth campus.
Smith expects the installation to be completed by Jan. 1.
She added that Maine Audubon, a wildlife conservation organization, has been installing solar systems since the late 1970s, but earlier models didn't have technology that lasted. In 1996, the location installed a geothermal heating system, which will continue to supply the remaining heat not provided by the solar system. The Environmental Center also has a passive solar system already installed and uses oil as a supplemented heating system.
Because Maine Audubon is a nonprofit, it does not qualify for the federal solar tax credit. That’s why Moody’s will pay for the installation, Smith explained, adding that Shawn Moody, president of that company, is an environmental advocate.
“They will form an LLC that will own the equipment. For the next six years we’ll buy electricity from that new company,” Smith said. “At the end of six years, we can buy the system from them.” Moody’s, in return, will get electricity payments for six years, tax credits and the repayment cost for the system, so she said the company will recoup its costs.
The cost of electricity for Maine Audubon over the next six years will be the same as for electricity from Central Maine Power Co., or about 12-cents per kilowatt hour, but the organization will not be subject to any rate increases during the six years. The real cost savings, she said, will occur if the organization exercises its option to buy the solar system. At that point it would not pay for 84% of its electricity, and buy the rest from CMP.
She added that Maine Audubon is moving to solar to reduce its carbon emissions and will also use the panels for educational purposes.
She said ReVision has estimated that in the first six years of use, the system will offset about 222 tons of carbon emissions, which is equivalent to 238,000 pounds of coal.
Read more
Most Recent
Most Recent
Comments