Peace Fleece is a unique yarn company committed to helping historic enemies cooperate and prosper through trade. Peace Fleece offers knitting yarn made from a blend of Russian, Romanian, American, Israeli and Palestinian wools as well as felting supplies, batts for quilters. Also Russian handpainted knitting needles and wooden buttons, patterns, knitting, crochet and felting kits and batting and raw fleeces for hand spinners as well as Waldorf puzzles and toys made in Russia. The company’s energy efficient offices are located in a barn on a sheep and horse farm in the idyllic town of Porter, nestled in the foothills of southwestern Maine

Peter Hagerty and his wife, Martha Tracy, started buying wool from the Soviet Union back in 1985 with a goal of using mutually beneficial trade to help diffuse the threat of nuclear war. Since then they have journeyed through eastern Europe, central Asia and the Middle East in search of farmers and shepherds who are willing to set aside historic enmities in exchange for opportunities leading to mutual understanding and economic interdependence.

Their journey to solar energy began with an interest in another renewable resource – wood. For over ten years the farm’s major source of heat has been a Tarm gasifying wood boiler which our sister company ReVision Heat sells and services. On a visit to Peace Fleece in April, ReVision Energy co-founder Phil Coupe helped Peter and Martha assess solar electric options for their farm.

Thanks to a suite of strong rebates and more affordable solar electric prices, Peace Fleece decided to put a 4.2kw grid-tied solar electric array on their barn roof, which is oriented to ideal solar south. The system features Enphase micro-inverters, which provide real-time internet data monitoring that Peace Fleece has made available to the public:

Peter writes of his experience with ReVision:

The great thing about living in the State of Maine is that everyone is connected one way or another. When the Revision crew arrived for the installation, the crew leader Josh and I quickly realized that we not only had several friends in common but also shared a committment to bio-fuels.

On that day I was having trouble with a bio-diesel engine that is pulled by our draft horses and powers our haying equipment. Josh described to me how a friend had run parallel fuel lines so when one filter clogged he could switch over to the other line and stay in business. I went back to my haying and Josh climbed back up on the roof to finish the installation.

The system is expected to produce roughly 4,400 killowatts of clean, renewable energy each year. This energy will offset 5,722 lbs. of CO2 emissions that otherwise would have been produced by fossil-fuel burning energy plants.

Join Ernest and Judy Cardinal and Will Kessler and Fred Greenhalgh from ReVision Energy on Thursday, July 29 from 6PM – 7:30PM for an open house at the Cardinal’s residence, 190 Bay Rd, Farmington, NH.

The Cardinals recently installed an evacuated tube solar hot water system for heating domestic water and a 4.3 kilowatt grid-tied photovoltaic system. Both systems were eligible for state and federal rebates including a 30% federal tax credit on both systems, a $6,000 state cash rebate for solar electricity, and a $1,500 state cash rebate for solar hot water.

In addition to seeing a grid-tied solar energy system first hand, guests will learn about solar hot water systems for domestic hot water, dramatically more affordable prices for solar panels, state and federal government incentives, and how to use solar to lower utility bills and reduce dependence on fossil fuels.

The evening starts with a meet and greet at 6PM, followed by a tour of the system and an informal presentation. Guests are encouraged to come by with questions and to sign up for a free site evaluation while at the open house; light refreshments to be served.

On Wednesday, July 28th, ReVision will be offering an open house at the Town of Montville’s Salt/Sand Shed, where we just finished a 7.98 kW grid-tied solar electric system. The location is 71 South Mountain Valley Hwy, Montville (on Route 220, between Route 3 and the Foy Road), just behind the fire station/transfer center.

Ryan Hertz and Brian Byrne of ReVision will be there to talk about how the solar electric system works, and to answer questions from local residents and others interested in solar about incentives and energy savings generated by the system.

Call the Town of Montville with any questions: 342-5543.

Have you thought about solar hot water or solar electricity for your home or business but not known where to begin?

Then come to Solar Energy for the Homeowner, a free hour-long presentation covering how solar hot water and solar electric energy systems work.

You’ll learn the answers to questions like: How much will a system cost? Is my home a good site for solar? How reliable are these systems? Can I really expect a return on investment since I live in Maine?

Learn what thousands of Mainers already know – that solar systems are an affordable, reliable, and sensible investment!

Efficiency Maine has announced that their popular $1,000 summer promotion for the Home Energy Savings Program (HESP) has been extended. Sign up by August 31st to qualify for an additional $1,000 beyond the existing $1,500 – $3,000 of incentives available in the program.

Here’s how it works:

• You no longer have to complete the project by August 31st.  Simply send in your application using the Efficiency Maine website.
• You’ll need to have an energy audit completed by September 30th and the project completed by December 31st.
• The $1,000 bonus is above and beyond the HESP standard rebates, which are:
  • 30% of Project Cost up to $1,500 for projects that will result in 25% – 49% total annual thermal energy savings - OR -
  • 50% of Project Cost up to $3,000 for projects that will resulting total annual thermal energy savings that will be 50% or more
• If solar hot water is part of the HESP project you’ll still get the standard solar hot water rebate, including an additional $500 for a total $1,500 solar hot water rebate.

To get started with the HESP program, be sure to submit a request before the August 31st deadline – that will secure your $1,000 bonus rebate. Then find an energy auditor – if you’d like a referral in your area just contact us!

The Home Energy Savings Program is funded by a stimulus grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

The solar hot water system for Scratch Baking Company has reduced their natural gas usage by more than 25%

For Bob Johnson at the Scratch Baking Company, solar hot water was a matter of “very simple math.”

With a modest investment in a solar hot water system, his business could “take a pretty big chunk out of our carbon contribution as well as save money by using less gas to heat hot water.”

With such a nice intersection of environmental stewardship and economics, it was simply a matter of finding the funds to invest in the system.

“Based on our calculations, the payback [for the system] would be relatively short, but we still wanted to find some sort of grant or partial financing so we would not have to take the full cash hit on the install,” Bob says. “ReVision’s staff was on top of this goal and advised me last fall that there was a Commercial Projects Grant available for solar energy projects of our size and scope. This was a Federal grant administered by Efficiency Maine. Jen (from ReVision) and I partnered in putting the grant together and it was awarded to Scratch in February.”

Make Hot Water While the Sun Shines

ReVision Energy co-founder Fortunat Mueller, one of the leading solar thermal experts in the northeast, designed a 120-tube solar hot water system with a Rinnai Continuum natural gas on demand hot water heater serving as backup. When the sun is shining, sun-heated antifreeze pumps from the rooftop collectors through a heat exchange coil at the bottom of a super-insulated storage tank, producing domestic hot water for Scratch.

When someone in the bakery turns on the tap, water flows from the solar tank and through the Rinnai hot water heater. If the water temperature is above a pre-determined setpoint, the Rinnai does not fire up at all. If the water needs to be warmed by a few degrees, the Rinnai is able to fire up to provide just the amount of heat required to get the water to the appropriate temperature.

The system has been living up to expectations, allowing Scratch to seriously benefit from the solar spill we experienced in May. So far Bob estimates that the hot water system has reduced his natural gas usage by more than 25% during the first month that the system was installed.

“I go down to look at the tank temp every morning when I get to work,” he says. “If the day before was a sunny day, we will be sitting on 210 gallons of 145 deg. water that we will need to blend down to 120 deg.”

But it’s the environmental benefits that excite Bob the most. “I believe Scratch is a perfect application for this kind of technology, and being a neighborhood bakery that is a values driven business, a very good use of these kinds of funds. And because of our location and customer base, we have a real opportunity for educating people about what is possible with solar.”

We will be offering an open house with at the Hayman residence at 7 Goldenrod Lane, Falmouth. The Haymans have both an evacuated tube solar hot water system for heating domestic water and a 5kw grid-tied photovoltaic system.

This is your chance to see two solar energy systems at work and to have an expert from ReVision answer any questions you have about renewable energy. The evening starts with a meet and greet at 6PM, tour of the system, and informal presentation. Light refreshments will be provided.

The Granite State has already been a solar leader in New England with their generous $6,000 cash rebate for residential solar electric systems up to 5kw as well as an average $1,500 rebate for solar hot water.

Now New Hampshire has taken the next step – mandating utilities to pay the customer for excess electric generation!

Yes, New Hampshire now requires utilities to pay customers when their solar electric system generates more electricity than they use.

The legislation, House Bill (HB) 1353 states that:

the customer-generator may elect to be paid or credited by the electric distribution utility for its excess generation at rates that are equal to the utility’s avoided costs for energy and capacity to provide default service as determined by the commission consistent with the requirements of the Public Utilities Regulatory Policy Act of 1978 (PURPA)

Emphasis Added

Wow!

How Much Will I Be Reimbursed?

In Germany, getting paid for solar electric generation is well-known, the special rate that you receive for excess solar electric generation is called a feed-in tariff.

New Hampshire’s program is a bit different, in that customers will get reimbursed closer to market rates for electricity, rather than a special “feed in” rate (which, in Germany, generates a roughly 8% return on investment for owners of solar systems).

The legislation puts it this way:

Each net energy metering tariff shall be identical, with respect to rates, rate structure, and charges, to the tariff under which a customer-generator would otherwise take default generation supply service from the distribution utility.

While the legislation is still in the process, should the full distribution cost of electricity be included in the reimbursement, that would result in a rate of close to .15c/kwh. We will post a follow-up once we better understand the details of the program!

When Can I Get Started?

The legislation is marked to be effective August 13, 2010.

In the meantime, solar electricity continues to spin your meter backwards and reduce your electric bill to zero so there’s no reason to wait!

Contact us to keep updated as we discover more details about this exciting new program (which hopefully shall inspire neighboring states to follow suit).