Unity College in Unity, Maine, received a $39,520 grant from Grants to Green Maine to upgrade the energy system and controls at the Unity College Center for the Performing Arts.
The grant will enable the college to replace outdated air conditioning units with air source heat pumps, replace incandescent and CFL lighting with LEDs, insulate the attic to R-70, and update monitoring and control equipment to enable remote control of energy systems from any web-linked computer.
According to a spokesperson for Unity College, “We have not yet selected a vendor. The work has not yet gone out to bid. We expect that to happen over the next 2-3 months. We anticipate savings of up to $10,000 per year, with a payback period of two to three years.”
The college’s strategic plan calls for it to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2019. This energy upgrade will help meet that goal.
Unity College was one of only two organizations to receive the inaugural implementation grant from Grants to Green Maine, a partnership between the Maine Development Foundation’s Maine Downtown Center, Efficiency Maine and the Maine Community Foundation; funded by Kendeda Fund of The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta. Fourteen smaller audit grants were awarded statewide for energy efficiency audits.
