BRATTLEBORO — Two Windham County projects are among the recipients of seven Vermont Community Development Program grants totaling $1.9 million that were announced by Gov. Peter Shumlin and Commerce and Community Development Secretary Lawrence Miller at a ceremony July 27 in Morristown.
The town of Brattleboro will be getting $325,000 for a loan to Carbon Harvest Energy, which will complete work on an agricultural facility and create nine new jobs in the process.
Located at the Windham Solid Waste Management District facility on Old Ferry Road, Carbon Harvest is currently generating 250 kilowatts of electricity from methane gas from the decomposing trash in the now-closed 30-acre landfill.
The company plans to use the waste heat from electric generation to heat a 20,000 square foot greenhouse for year-round aquaculture and plant production.
According to the company's website, carbonharvestenergy.com/projects/brattleboro-carbon-harvest, the system will supply high quality fish and fresh vegetables to local markets, with a portion going to the Vermont Foodbank.
Carbon Harvest president Robert McCormick described the process in October 2010 when the Brattleboro facility opened. He said nutrient-rich water from the recirculating aquaculture system will be filtered and then recycled as fertilizer for plants grown hydroponically, a technology known as “aquaponics.” This water will also be used, along with carbon dioxide from the power plant, for a research project to grow algae for biofuels and feed.
As McCormick described it, it will be a “circular model that is sustainable and wastes nothing.”
The town of Westminster also received a $150,000 grant, which it will loan to the Windham & Windsor Housing Trust for the renovation of a multi-family residential building in the village of North Westminster.
The renovation will increase the total number of affordable units from four to six.
The Vermont Community Development Program money comes from the approximately $7 million Vermont receives annually in Community Development Block Grant funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which must be used principally to benefit persons of low and moderate income.
The awards leverage more than $13 million in other funds from private and public sources.
The state awards the competitive grants based on recommendations of the Vermont Community Development Board and approval of Secretary Miller.