Bethel, ME – Maine Energy Systems and industry partners successfully preserve Mainers’ access to $6,000 rebates for heating with best-in-class renewable wood pellet technology.

Maine Energy Systems (MESys) along with the Biothermal Energy Council, Maine Pellet Fuels Association, Professional Logging Contractors of the Northeast, the Northern Forest Center, Lignetics, and True North Energy successfully filed with Efficiency Maine to continue the $6,000 residential wood pellet boiler rebate for new installations.

Efficiency Maine’s stated goals for Triennial Plan VI: to lower heating costs, reduce GHG emissions, and create stable private sector jobs, are precisely why MESys and industry partners introduced testimony and science to show the virtues of pellet heating.

Testimony submitted by MESys stated and successfully showed that “Maine could substantially reduce CO2 emissions created by fossil fuels for building heat in Maine, nurture a homegrown energy economy that grows the fuel and builds, installs, and maintains the infrastructure, and encourage increased certification of Maine’s forests and logging practices, capable of producing a never-ending source of energy.”  Efficiency Maine joined other state and federal agencies in embracing a net carbon neutral, local fuel by continuing support for residential wood pellet heating system rebates.

Testimony continued to showcase that pellet heating is one arrow in a quiver of resources, and that wood pellets have remained relatively stable-priced over the last decade and are expected to remain so.  It also highlighted Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection’s 9^th Biennial Report on Progress toward Greenhouse Gas Reduction Goals recognizing that wood products which are burned do not release any new GHG into the atmosphere compared with wood that decays naturally since this type of carbon emission is biogenic.

MESys has thousands of best-in-class wood pellet boiler and furnace systems installed in North America and has over 500 million pounds of pellets delivered in the Northeast, offsetting over 30 million gallons of heating oil and propane, and preventing 380,199 tons of CO2 from being introduced to our atmosphere.

From wood pellet deliveries alone since 2008, approximately $130 million has stayed in regional and state economies rather than being exported to the fossil fuel market overseas thanks to homeowners and businesses (under two million BTUs) switching to wood pellets.  These recirculating dollars support job creation and sustain jobs within the heating industry as people switch from conventional systems to more renewable options such as wood pellets, deemed carbon neutral by the US EPA and US DOE.

Homeowners in Maine can further reduce their cost of heating by taking advantage of eligible tax credits and earning Thermal Renewable Energy Credits (T-RECs).  A homeowner can earn about 3.6 RECs per ton of pellets that they use. The market price of T-RECs fluctuates and can be worth up to a cap of $25 each.  For a homeowner using about 8 tons of pellets per year this could mean grossing over $700/year, or up to $14,000 over 20 years not to mention the fuel cost savings.  Ultimately this allows the homeowner to reduce their cost of pellets to as low as $2.75/gal equivalent of #2 heating oil.  Over a 30-year boiler or furnace life (which leading systems are warrantied to), a modern wood heating system returns thousands of dollars to the homeowner and their local economy.

MESys commends Efficiency Maine for continuing to support a virtuous technology which supports multiple Maine industries and responsibly uses our natural resources for renewable, local heat.