Working Waterfront

The wonderful warmth of wood

Twenty years ago, late on a Saturday afternoon after I'd spent the day dumping firewood into the basement, you might have heard me proclaim: "Wood heat's great, but man, I don't want to be 50 and still doing all this work." Yeah, you guessed it. I'm 56 and still doing… SEE MORE

The team chalks pictures on the composting towers

Working Waterfront

Island life nurtures the best in team design

For a week during each of the past four summers, a group of college students and their instructors have been channeling the innovative spirit and nature-oriented sensibility of R. Buckminster Fuller in the design pioneer’s own habitat. Throughout his life, Fuller spent summers on Bear Island in Penobscot Bay. The… SEE MORE

A schooner sails past the tanks in South Portland on a late May Saturday.

Working Waterfront

New mailboat in the works for Isle au Haut

There's one more day of summer showing on the calendar as this column is being written, but the signs of autumn are everywhere on the coast of Maine. Along with the crisp, cool air that moved into place last weekend, we've been seeing the median age of sidewalk strollers in… SEE MORE

A WWOOFer at a farm in Connecticut poses with the bok choy she grew.

Working Waterfront

The world came to me this summer, via WWOOFers

A weeder’s dream vacation is going to a Maine island and staying in someone’s house, getting three squares a day, and all the fresh air you can breathe in exchange for weeding, mulching, planting, thinning, building compost piles, watering and weeding some more. This summer, I discovered that there are… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Tax breaks for renewables will keep innovation moving

Let's turn the calendar back to another October, the one in 1973, when OPEC raised the price of oil by 70 percent. Imagine that in early 1974, your state or federal government made a $1,000 tax credit available to be applied to the purchase of any vehicle that got 25… SEE MORE

The interior part of an air-source heat pump includes a fan that blows across the heated coils.

Working Waterfront

Heat pumps harvest warmth from cold air

Heating efficiency experts will tell you the best bucks you can spend on your home are those that keep the heat you've already paid for inside a little longer. Air sealing in the basement and around the chimney and installing plastic window inserts and caulking around the outside frames are… SEE MORE

Cal Trumann of ReVision Energy installs photovoltaics.

Working Waterfront

The case for solar electricity

Editor's note: Bill Behrens is the founder of ReVision Energy, based in Liberty. Behrens was a guest on the "Common Ground Radio" program on WERU-FM on Sept. 4, where the topics included energy produced by photovoltaic technology, which Behrens' company installs. Homeowners can let the electricity power the building and, if… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

How many lightbulbs does it take?

When your community's electric rates are among the highest in the nation, it pays to consider ways to cut consumption. Work done on Monhegan Island, with help from the Island Institute (publisher of The Working Waterfront), was both simple and effective, and could reduce the island's collective annual electric bill… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Shellfish, kelp may join lobster as cash ‘crops’

As fall approaches, lobstermen are seeing 3,000-pound days with lobsters at $4-$6 per pound. Emerging Asian markets and increased competition for supply from processors are two of the many factors driving this trend. Consumers of the McLobster roll might have helped, too. All of this good fortune deepens our economic… SEE MORE

The members of the Edgecomb Community Solar Farm Association with their ground array. Another array is mounted on the barn behind them.

Working Waterfront

Maine’s first community solar farm signals trend

Lynne and Christopher Gilbert of Bristol had long been interested in solar power. Unfortunately, a solar array wouldn’t have worked on their roof, since it’s not the best angle for the sun and there are many trees around it. Last summer, they were at a meeting of the Midcoast Green… SEE MORE