Seafood Producer’s Cooperative in Sitka is upgrading its energy systems, with financial help from the federal government.
Stephen Rhoads is the vice-president of sales for SPC. He said problems with old, diesel-fired equipment at the plant came to a head last winter.
“Our heating system was built with the plant,” Rhoads said. “ And it is a diesel boiler on one end of the plant, and my office is on the opposite side of the plant. And it’s been getting less and less effective. And this winter, I had enough space heaters in my office that when I hit print on my printer, I would blow the breaker to the office. So I stopped printing.”
Rhoads outlined SPC’s energy strategy during a presentation to the Sitka Chamber of Commerce on April 16. He said SPC is the nation’s oldest and largest fisherman-owned cooperative in the country. It met the criteria for a grant from the US Department of Agriculture’s Rural Energy for America Program – or REAP. The first step involved an extensive energy audit by the agency, and then a lengthy application.
But Rhoads said it has been worth it.
“The first year, we went for a project of a hair under $200,000,” he said, “and they’re gonna reimburse us $100,000. We’re ripping out our diesel boilers, and we’re putting in heat pumps in all of the office and break rooms. It’s a big project – we’ve been talking about it for years – we were going to have to replace our diesel system anyways. And we’re going to upgrade to heat pumps, and be into it. And when you’re at half the payback on a project, man that gets really good.”
Rhoads encouraged other businesses – both nonprofit and for-profit – to look into REAP. He said many fishing vessel owners were put off at first, because there is no funding for energy improvements for propulsion – or, new engines. However, there are plenty of other systems that qualify for funding.
“On commercial fishing vessels, they have done generators, they’ve done heat pumps, so people can offset the diesel cost of heating their boats in winter,” said Rhoads. “They put variable frequency drives on circulation pumps, replaced entire freezer systems, fixed the shore power connection to be compliant with the city utilities, batteries, LED lights. But there’s a lot of flexibility on what can be done.”
Rhoads said that another challenge in Sitka was finding a contractor qualified to perform energy improvements. But once that hurdle was down, he said the project could be completed well within the USDA’s two-year requirement.
