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Hampden Waste-to-Energy Plant Slated to Open in April

A new $69 million waste-to-energy plant that will process garbage from more than 115 communities is expected to began accepting trash next April.

Fiberight CEO Craig Stuart-Paul says the road construction system for the Coldbrook Road facility in Hampden has been completed, along with all financing arrangements for the 144,000-square-foot biogas plant.

“All that road infrastructure is now installed and with water and sewer in, the site is now being cleared and currently we’re looking then that as early as next month into September, concrete will start to be poured and we’ve booked the building to go up in October,” he says. “What that means is that it would appear that we have should have the recycling plant in time for April and start accepting waste from the local communities around then, and we’re ahead of schedule thanks to some good weather and clear sailing.”

Earlier this year, the Finance Authority of Maine agreed to serve as a conduit to access $45 million in tax-exempt bonds for the project.

Stuart-Paul says concrete work should get underway at the construction site next month and that Fiberight communities will pay $70 per ton for their tipping fees when their current contracts with the Penobscot Energy Recovery Co. expire next year.

The Fiberight plant will utilize an enzymatic hydrolysis fermentation process to produce ethanol and biogas.