Angus King, III, Summit Utilities’ Vice President and Chief Development Officer, manages all growth efforts for the company, overseeing sales, marketing, and M&A activity.
Previous to Summit, Angus worked on M&A for First Wind, which later became SunEdison. His present job is VP and Chief Development Officer, which includes Sales, Marketing, M&A and customer service. The gas system in Maine provides two times the energy provided by electricity. This means that even if we switch all electricity to renewables, we will not hit the state goals. 70% of homes in Maine still heat with oil. If these oil burning homes were converted to natural gas, there is a 20% CO2 reduction. If the boiler is updated then, there is a 11 % reduction. If both are done, then the reduction is 31%.
Renewable natural gas (RNG) captures the methane from trash, manure and food waste. Methane released to the atmosphere has a much higher global warming effect than CO2. By capturing the methane, and converting it to CO2 when burned, the global warming impact would be significant. Summit Gas will be able to burn the gas for energy, and sell the renewable credits to the hot California market.
Currently there is a voluntary customer option for customers to buy green gas, due to Summit buying RECS to cover 5% of its needs. https://summitnaturalgasmaine.com/RenewableNaturalGas
The real exciting thing is the Community Dairy Project, which is planned to supply 14% of Summit’s needs with locally generated RNG. This will be done with feeding manure, food waste, and some trash to a bio-digester. The output is methane, a semi-dry material suitable for fertilizer, and a dry material suitable for animal bedding. Summit is now working to get farmers, ME regulators and CA regulators to approve the project.
Another plan is to use electrolysis, which can create hydrogen from water and electricity. Up to 5% hydrogen can be mixed into the natural gas system. Hydrogen, when burned, emits no global warming gases. Hydrogen can also be a feedstock with CO2 to a bio-reactor which generates methane. The bio-reactor is charged with bacteria, evolved to optimize this reaction. Summit is currently working with NREL on this project.
(Photo L-R: David Ertz, 2nd VP Bob Martin and Angus King III.)