Local corn to fuel furnace to heat SAD 58 bus garage (Maine)

[jpak]

http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/2797871.shtml

SALEM -- A corn furnace will be heating the bus garage in School Administrative District 58 this winter, bought through a local farmer and new franchise dealer and fueled with his own Farmington-grown feed corn.

SAD 58 is the first school district and possibly the first public entity in Maine to explore heating with corn, an alternative fuel used for years throughout the Corn Belt in the Midwest.

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He expects the furnace to use 618 bushels of corn. At $2.40 a bushel, the cost will be $1,854 compared to $5,040 for 2,100 gallons of fuel oil at $2.40 a gallon. The furnace will pay for itself in 4.7 years but Clark believes it will more likely take only three years. Members of the SAD 58 School Board last week last week approved Clark's request for $15,000 for the project, with $8,000 to purchase the Minnesota-made furnace, $2,500 for installation and hook-up and $4,500 for the corn, a 22-ton silo and an automatic-feed auger system. Clark said the garage's existing forced air furnace will remain as a back-up.

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York's 200 acres to be planted in corn are not enough to meet demand and he will be buying from other farmers and making his combine available. He is installing a $60,000 new corn storage facility, a bagging system and is devoting one barn to be used for a warehouse.

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