FORT FAIRFIELD, Maine — ReEnergy, Maine’s largest biomass electricity provider, is considering ideas from businesses that want to partner with one or more of the company’s four plants to use affordable heat and power.
In a statement, officials with Latham, New York-based ReEnergy said the company has received “numerous” proposals for co-locating facilities at one or more of the company’s Maine biomass plants.
In late October, ReEnergy issued a request for proposals seeking pitches from businesses such as manufacturers that could benefit from using excess heat, hot water or affordable electricity from one of ReEnergy’s Maine biomass plants in Ashland, Fort Fairfield, Livermore Falls and Stratton. The deadline for submitting proposals to the company was Nov. 30.
“We are beginning the process of reviewing the proposals to determine which of them are most feasible and which are the best possible fit,” said ReEnergy CEO Larry Richardson in a press release.
“We anticipate that we may be conducting intensive due-diligence — and entering into confidentiality agreements — with one or more of the respondents.”
Richardson said the company is aiming to start discussions with potential businesses by the end of the year and to announce those chosen in the spring.
ReEnergy declined to release information about the number or type of proposals. Charlotte Mace, executive director of Biobased Maine, the nonprofit group that facilitated the requests for proposal, or RFP, said the proposals are promising.
“The response to the RFP indicates that emerging-technology businesses are interested in siting facilities in Maine and recognize that Maine is unique due to its abundance of second-generation, sustainable feedstock and its close proximity to the largest consumer market in the world,” Mace said in a press release.
ReEnergy’s plants buy lower-grade wood and wood residues from loggers and lumber mills and use the materials to create electricity. The company’s four Maine plants employ about 100 people directly and generate enough electricity combined to power about 154,000 average homes.
While serving as a key part of the forestry economy, buying wood that would otherwise go to waste, ReEnergy and other Maine biomass facilities have struggled in recent years to stay afloat amid fluctuating electricity prices. Four biomass plants — ReEnergy’s Ashland and Fort Fairfield facilities and Stored Solar’s West Enfield and Jonesboro plants — are being helped with a two year, $13.4 million aid package from the state of Maine.
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- ReEnergy CEO Larry Richardson, left, talks with Irving Woodlands wood fiber manager Roy Bernard inside the ReEnergy biomass plant in Fort Fairfield during an open house on Wednesday, Oct 18. (Anthony Brino)
