US: Stemilt receives energy conservation award

Washington state Governor Chris Gregoire recognized Stemilt Growers with a Governor’s Award for Leadership in Energy Performance during an awards ceremony held at the state Capitol last Wednesday night. Stemilt received the award for greatly reducing its energy use during the past two years, which it accomplished with help from Chelan County Public Utility District.

Stemilt’s Tate Mathison, sales team leader, and Monty Leavitt, refrigeration manager, accepted the award for the company.

Over the past two years, Stemilt reduced energy consumption at its largest fruit packing facility, Olds Station, by 30 percent. Energy use at the facility is dominated by industrial refrigeration and controlled atmosphere equipment that is used to keep the fruit fresh until it can be processed and shipped. Stemilt made efficiency improvements by reducing the speed of their industrial refrigeration fans and installing CO2 scrubbers to control the atmosphere in storage rooms at Olds Station.

Controls on refrigeration fans can slow the speed of the fans by as much as 50 percent, thereby improving efficiency. Fan speeds are adjusted regularly based on the demand for refrigeration in each storage room.

The installation of CO2 scrubbers helps control the amount of CO2 inside fruit storage rooms (apples release CO2 as they are stored). NASA developed CO2 scrubbers in the 1960s for the Apollo space program to keep CO2 exhaled by astronauts from reaching high levels in the space capsule. These scrubbers lower carbon dioxide levels in the rooms which significantly reduces Stemilt’s reliance on nitrogen, the traditional way CO2 was purged from rooms.

Together, these improvements help Stemilt realize energy savings of 8,770,190 kWh per year, which equates to $167,000 in utility costs annually and is enough energy to power approximately 400 all-electric homes in Chelan County.

These two Stemilt projects cost a combined $1 million to implement; of which $625,000 was paid for through rebates from the PUD. Washington State University also paid $50,000 on the variable frequency drive project through its own energy dollars.

“It’s a great honor for Stemilt to be recognized as an energy leader in Washington, a state with a great ‘green’ reputation.” said Roger Pepperl, Stemilt marketing director.

For more information:
Brianna Shales
Stemilt Growers LLC
Tel: +1 509-662-9667 x1221
Fax: +1 (509) 663-2914
Brianna.shales@stemilt.com
www.stemilt.com