Archive for the ‘Blog’ Category

Shingle Style Eco Friendly Home on the shore in Harpswell

There is something about a shingle style home that draws me to it. This graceful, angular, Eco-Friendly home, sitting high on a hillside overlooking Casco Bay with a clear view of the White Mountains to the west, will be sided with rustic red cedar shingles allowing it to blend naturally into the coastal landscape.

Fine craftsmanship and spectacular views combined with green high performance building techniques will make this home special. Windows on the South side will provide natural lighting and passive solar heating. High levels of insulation and air sealing maximize energy efficiency. A geothermal heat pump and in slab radiant heat will provide comfort during our long winters. Solar energy systems that produce hot water and electricity can be incorporated into the design.

Scenic Building Lots in Woolwich

Privacy without isolation in “Murphy’s Corner” area. Scenic properties overlooking Fresh Water pond or vistas for elevated parcels. Protective covenants as well as home and site plan review and underground utilities. Select your home site today and become a part of this rural neighborhood, close to Bath.

Feed-In Tariff legislation renewable energy for Maine

Learn more about Feed-in Tariff Legislation at the Midcoast Green Collaborative:
http://www.midcoastgreencollaborative.org/Feed_in_tariff_info.html

Feed-in tariffs are legally guaranteed payments for electricity produced by renewable sources such as solar, wind, biomass or small hydro power plants. The green electricity is fed into the power grid. The producers receive a payment for the amount of electricity produced. The payment is scientifically set for the particular generating technology and is guaranteed for a long period of time, usually twenty years. The method for funding involves sharing the cost among all rate-payers. The result is a very small increase in price per household.

The Midcoast Green Collaborative drafted and presented the Maine Renewable Energy Sources Act, A feed-in tariff bill, to the legislature during this years session. The bill was voted down by the Joint Standing Committee on Energy and Utilities.

This bill, if passed into law, would have made it possible for individuals, businesses, farmers, and municipalities to become producers of clean green electricity.

This is not a new idea. At this time forty six countries have passed feed-in tariff laws. Vermont has instituted a pilot program and at least fourteen other states in the US are at various stages of drafting and considering bills for passage.

Cool Communities of Bath views this renewable energy law as a way to reduce carbon emissions and has promoted it. The only environmental organization that actively supported our effort is the Maine chapter of the Sierra Club. We were opposed by Central Maine Power and the Maine Chamber of Commerce.

The passage of this bill would have made Maine a leader in the production of electricity from renewable sources, giving us clean inexpensive energy, created good paying jobs, and put us on the road to becoming energy independent.

Ours is a true grass roots effort. We are loosely organized, have no funding, but are totally committed to seeing this bill through to passage. As expected we were strongly opposed by the entrenched energy interests that monopolize the production and distribution of energy. We will continue to work to bring renewable energy produced by the people to Maine.