Gould Academy’s campus just got a little greener. Thanks to the help and generosity of Maine Energy Systems in Bethel and Austrian based company Okofen, Gould will heat its alumni relations building this winter with a wood pellet boiler.
“We’re very excited to heat the Park Mason House with a renewable resource. We continue to implement green initiatives and are happy to add this boiler to the list,” said Pete Rackliffe, Gould’s chief financial officer. “This will be a great pilot program for us to see how we potentially can apply this technology to other buildings on campus.”
A gift to the school, the new pellet system will serve as the primary source of heat for the 142 year-old building. Rackliffe estimates that the boiler will burn 18 tons of pellets a year and that Gould could see a savings of up to $1,000 in the first year alone as well as up to a 34 ton reduction in greenhouse emissions.
“Gould Academy has been an innovator among independent schools for many years;” said Maine Energy Systems CEO and Gould Academy Trustee, Les Otten, “Herbert Orten, OkoFEN’s CEO, and I are pleased to help them continue their innovative leadership through the donation of this world class boiler system.”
Other green initiatives at Gould include: CFL lighting in dorms and staff housing; upgrades in energy efficient windows, boilers and insulation around campus; a new composting system through the Farm and Forest Program, a campus wide recycling system and a number of others that continue to support the school’s commitment to environmentally friendly practices.
Gould Academy is a small, coed college preparatory school located at the eastern edge of the White Mountains in Bethel, Maine. With 250 students and an average class size of ten, the Academy prepares academically motivated students for college and helps them to become independent-minded, ethical citizens who will lead lives of purpose, action, excellence, and compassion in a dynamic world. Visit www.gouldacademy.org for more information.
Maine Energy Systems (MESys) pioneered the introduction of automatic wood pellet boiler systems and bulk pellet distribution to the U.S. beginning in June 2008. MESys was motivated by the New Englanders’ extraordinary dependence on #2 oil for home, business, and institutional heating. Since that time, MESys has trained nearly 300 regional heating contractors to install and service automatic wood pellet boiler systems.
OkoFEN, located in Niederkappel, Austria, is Europe’s pellet heating specialist having produced the first commercially offered European pellet boiler in 1997. Today OkoFEN produces the world’s most sophisticated and environmentally-friendly pellet boiler systems. Maine Eco Pellet Heating boilers, under license from OkoFEN, are marketed by MESys as AutoPellet systems. MESys is the sole distributor of these products in the Northeastern United States.