PARIS — The public will be able to see the Oxford Hills School District’s new $2 million biomass boiler and other alternative energy projects next month as the boiler is prepared to be fired up for the season.

The open house will be held from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Nov. 16. Tours of the four sources of alternative energy currently used at the Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School will start near the gym.

The green projects include a biomass boiler fueled by wood chips, solar panels on the roof to heat water for showers and bathrooms, a windmill at the athletic field to supplement the electricity supply and a photovoltaic system to generate electricity for water pumps.

“We had to upgrade our high school’s energy infrastructure to improve comfort for students and faculty, get better lighting and enhance our energy control systems. We decided to accomplish it in as green a method as possible,” Superintendent Rick Colpitts said this week.

School officials say they believe the high school, which houses about 1,100 students, is the only school in the state to utilize all four forms of alternative energy.

Other schools, including the Poland Regional High School and Bruce M. Whittier Middle School, and schools in Falmouth, Skowhegan and Turner have also installed wood-chip or wood-pellet boilers to supplement heating costs, according to Tom Wood, senior planner at the Wood2Energy program at the Maine Forest Service.

There are an additional 22 new grant awards under the Wood2Energy program that are in various stages of wood-burning boiler development, including the Mechanic Falls Town Hall, Wood added.

“The system is a statement on Oxford Hills’ commitment to being green,” Colpitts said. “It will help us reduce emission of greenhouse gases in the Oxford area and save taxpayers money on the school district’s energy bill.”

The wood-chip-burning boiler, which is affectionately called the Eastman-Viessmann boiler in honor of retired Superintendent Mark Eastman, who spearheaded the project, was built by the Viessmann Group in Austria.

The boiler was installed in late March, test fired in April and will go online full time next month, Colpitts said Wednesday.

The 2,600-pound boiler is expected to save the district as much as $129,000 a year in fuel. School officials say all of the alternative energy features can be expanded in the future if student population grows.

School officials said the green projects will reduce the emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from traditional fossil fuel power plants by about 2 million pounds per year.

“This will also help reduce dependence on foreign oil, which is a goal of Maine and the U.S.,” Colpitts said.

Siemens Industry Inc., a global provider of energy and environmental solutions with offices in Scarborough, developed the project for the school district and guarantees savings in energy costs in its contract with the district.

In addition to the boiler, solar panels, windmill and photovoltaic power system, the work by Siemens included upgrading energy control systems, energy-efficient, light-emitting-diode lighting in the parking lot, an interactive “green touch screen” computer at the high school to show students, faculty and public what the district is doing to conserve energy and a new ventilation control at the middle school that is based on the number of people in the room or detected carbon monoxide levels.

Additionally, there was a cast-iron boiler replacement at Legion Memorial School in West Paris, steam to hot water replacement at the Agnes Gray School in West Paris and refrigeration modifications for more efficient cooling at the high school kitchen.

A third of the project was paid for by grants from the federal government, funneled through the Maine Forestry Agency. The balance will be funded with savings in energy costs.

“One of our jobs in education is to teach by example,” Colpitts said. “In that spirit, wherever we can, we’ll continue to search for taxpayer savings while doing our part to enhance the environment.”

ldixon@sunjournal.com

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