HOULTON — High-energy costs plus the desire to reduce dependency on the Middle East oil have forced home and business owners across the country to search for alternative sources of fuel to meet their growing needs.
Mainers are fortunate to have an abundance of natural resources at their disposal, one of which is wood.
Long before pellet mills were manufactured in Maine, homeowners were installing pellet stoves with most of the fuel being imported from Canada. In the beginning, supplies were sporadic and the pricing inconsistent, but with the migration away from oil and given the state’s vast woodlands, it was only natural that Maine would become an ideal place for the production of wood pellets.
Contributed Photo
MAKING A DELIVERY — An Agri-Cal Inc. tanker filled with wood pellets makes a delivery in Houlton this winter. More and more homes are making the switch to wood pellet furnaces, now that the pellets can be delivered right to their home and stored in a silo.
Maine now has four facilities producing a high quality product; the two closest to Houlton being Northeast Pellets in Ashland and Corinth Wood Pellets in Corinth.
Now, with ample fuel supplies and improved technology, many consumers are installing wood pellet furnaces to heat their entire home. This has opened up the market for bulk pellet deliveries. Everyone is familiar with bagged wood pellets in 40-pound bags. Northeast is now offering an easier to handle 25 pound bag, which are handy if one is feeding a stove, but furnaces can hold much more than a single fill, thus bulk deliveries are a logical choice.
Businesses, municipalities, schools and churches are increasingly installing commercial pellet heating systems and are using on-site storage bins. These can be made out of metal or wood and are very simply constructed or one can purchase prefab silos from Agri-Cal, Inc. or bulk spring bins and silos from businesses such as McPartland and Sons or Harbison’s Plumbing and Heating.
An added benefit of bulk delivery? No packaging, thus reducing plastic in the landfills and lowering cost to the consumer.
The next step is filling these bins with bulk fuel and northern Maine is lucky to have two sources for these deliveries. Agri-Cal, Inc., owned and operated here in Houlton by Douglas Callnan and Daigle Oil (DOC’s) which is based in Fort Kent. Both deliver throughout the County.
DOC’s uses a pneumatic system to blow pellets into a bin. Agri-Cal, Inc. has the capabilities to blow or auger fill a bin. A new delivery option recently developed in Brewer utilizes vacuum lines.
Agri-Cal, Inc. had been delivering bulk feed pellets throughout the New England area for over 30 years. These pellets were mostly delivered to dairy farmers, but with the disappearance of so many independent dairies, the delivery of bulk wood pellets was a natural fit. The first delivery of this type was made three years ago to The College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, which had just installed a state of the art wood pellet boiler. Since then, other colleges have made the switch to “green” bio fuels, including UMPI, NMCC and UMFK.
The town of Houlton, with advice from Southern Aroostook Development Corp recognized that alternative fuels are the way of the future, and has implemented a low interest Revolving Loan Program which is available to building owners in the downtown through TIF funds. The objective of this program is to encourage building owners to replace or upgrade existing heating systems to improve the building’s cash flow. The perfect way to ascertain the buildings efficiency is through an energy audit, which can be provided locally by Buildings Etc., owned and operated by Pete Chase.
The Houlton area continues to be a leader in bringing all the pieces of the puzzle together for converting to green bio fuels. Heating systems and service are provided by Aroostook Milling, Haynesville Wood Heating, Town Line Wood Heat, Harbisons Plumbing and Heating, and JH McPartland and Sons. The energy audits are provided by Buildings Etc., and independent installation and system maintenance provided by Larry Guy and John Farrar. Bulk pellet delivery is by Agri-Cal Inc. and Daigle Oil and silo and bin sales are by Agri-Cal Inc., Jas McPartland and Sons and Harbisons Plumbing and Heating.
Put that all together with advice from SADC and the town of Houlton, who offers the Revolving Loan Program, and you have a very dynamic and committed group invested in the future of Houlton. With a proactive University of Maine Cooperative Extension which is currently performing experiments on grasses that can be grown locally, harvested and compressed into a pelletized form and used as a new type of renewable fuel, we are on a path into the future of alternative bio fuels.
