BRUNSWICK

The Nature Conservancy in Fort Andross is about to put their clean energy philosophy into practice, installing solar panels on the roof in conjunction with Waterfront Maine that will essentially make the nonprofit energy neutral.

The organization that has been in the same relative area for more than 20 years was formerly located on the other side of the river in Topsham. State Director Kate Dempsey and Senior Policy Adviser Tom Abello said they enjoy their home on the fourth floor of the fort.

“For one, The Nature Conservancy loves being in downtown Brunswick,” Dempsey said. “Our staff loves just being able to walk outside and take advantage at lunch time of where we are.”

Dempsey said it’s made them think of where they wanted to stay in the long term. She said vital downtowns are also important to the organization.

Digging into their own thinking about the climate and the importance of reducing emissions, as well as adapting for climate change and conservation, Dempsey said the organization felt the need to act directly and “walk our own talk.”

“What’s really fun is the way we learned so much about solar has been from our own staff members taking initiative on their own homes and then we have a staff member who is very engaged in the Solarize Brunswick project,” Dempsey said.

Dempsey said staff luncheons turned to the possibilities of residential solar projects, prompting the need to move forward with going green at the office.

About a year ago they approached their landlord, Waterfront Maine, about changing their electricity supply to solar and had discussions with them about how that structure might look.

It turns out, being a nonprofit was not going to benefit them the way it would a homeowner or business.

Private and corporate entities who go solar can take advantage of tax breaks — not so for The Nature Conservancy. If Waterfront Maine, however, initiated the solar installation on their behalf, it would create a win-win situation where Waterfront Maine gets a tax break and The Nature Conservancy gets solar power.

The 160-panel array installed by ReVision Energy will produce more than 40 kilowatts — enough to power their entire office of 8,500 to 8,800 square feet with a staff of 35 that rises to about 42 full time with summer positions.

Work began on Monday, with cranes lifting the panels up to the roof of the fort. Installation should be done on a section of the roof that Waterfront Maine had worked on to accommodate the panels. By all accounts, Central Maine Power should have the system up and running by the end of the month.

“The size of the panel array is about 10 times what a house in downtown Brunswick would have,” Dempsey said.

Dempsey said the other thing the organization wanted to demonstrate is that landlords can take action on behalf of their tenants and work with their tenants in a similar way. The Nature Conservancy is going to go on making payments, but now to Waterfront Maine to help with the cost of the system.

Tony Gatti of Waterfront Maine was reluctant to discuss the investment, but made clear that it was a significant investment and a strong belief in the use of green energy by both the tenant and the landlord.

“Once the project’s done and it’s running we hope to talk about it all over the state as a different approach because people think about solar as something they have to do themselves,” Dempsey said.

Abello said Waterfront Maine is going to see how this project goes and then as they do improvements on the roof there’s an opportunity to do more solar installations for tenants in other parts of the mill.

“I think what’s cool about what Waterfront’s doing is kind of testing out the model with us and so it really is a win-win,” Dempsey said.

dmcintire@timesrecord.com