BRYANT POND — The University of Maine 4-H Camp and Learning Center in Bryant Pond has installed a major solar system in its first year-round building that will help it become a net-zero user, or perhaps a positive generator, of electricity.

All it will take to start is a flip of the switch, said Josh Baston, project manager with ReVision Energy of Portland whose crew is installing 5- by 3-foot solar panels over portions of the 776-square-foot Lakeside Lodge roof this week. Most are being installed on the south side of the building for maximum sunlight.

The center will have a dining hall and a commercial-style kitchen and will hold 36 people. It will have classroom space, a museum and a library holding mineralogy collections, books about the environment and conservation and other Maine-related themes. The mineralogy collection will be from the old Maine Conservation School and some other donations.

The lodge, which is still under construction, will incorporate as many “green” features as possible, including the solar panels and recycled-newspaper insulation throughout the building, said program Director Ryder Scott.

“Whenever possible, we’ve used local materials for construction of the entire building, within reason,” he said.

The solar panel system itself is designed to help educate students and others about solar power. The construction of interpretive signs will allow anyone to come into the building and see on a computer screen how much electricity the panels are generating at any given time. The signs are being created through funding from the Maine Community Foundation, Scott said.

The 103-kilowatt solar panels will generate about 14,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, offsetting about 18,200 pounds of carbon, said Fred Greenhalgh of ReVision Energy. “It’s a pretty sizable system.”

Baston, of ReVision, said the panels will produce electricity that will go into the Central Maine Power grid system. Most of the power will be generated between 10 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. on sunny days. When it has produced more electricity than the lodge needs, CMP will credit the Learning Center for use in the future, such as in the winter when little electrical power is being generated.

The solar-panel system has been in use for the past 20 years. “There’s nothing radical about it,” Baston said.

The system will allow the camp to keep the newly constructed building open year-round without increasing overhead costs, Scott said.

Eighty percent of the project cost is being funded through a $50,000 renewable resource grant from the Maine Public Utilities Commission. The remainder of the money was acquired through fundraising.

The PUC grant, which is administered through Efficiency Maine, supports projects that use renewable energy technologies, specifically photovoltaic. The grants are funded by ratepayers who opt to support the program.

Since 1956, the Bryant Pond 4-H Camp and Learning Center, formerly the Maine Conservation School, has worked with thousands of students, teachers and groups helping them explore and investigate the natural world.

ldixon@sunjournal.com

Copy the Story Link