BANGOR — Juan Hernandez, the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service state conservationist, recently announced the award of more than $181,000 in Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) funds to three Maine recipients, including Community Energy Partners, LLC, in Freeport.

A component of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, CIG is a statewide competitive grants process to address some of the state’s most pressing natural resource conservation needs.

The other recipients of CIG funds were Project SHARE (Salmon Habitat and River Enhancement), and Cultivating Community.

“These grants offer an opportunity to provide innovative approaches to environmental enhancement and protection on working agricultural lands,” said Hernandez.

Community Energy Partners received $50,000 for “demonstrating innovative implementation of greater on-farm efficiency and greenhouse gas reductions.” The objectives of this project are to encourage farmers to conduct full-scale energy assessments, to educate farmers in their actual energy usage through education and outreach on smart meters, to offer heavily-discounted wind speed data gathering for small wind turbines, to educate how to develop community wind projects, to demonstrate farmer-owned community wind project development, and to provide outreach and technical assistance to underserved producers, landowners and other eligible entities.