Published on December 7, 2011

Pete Johnson leads a tour of the new Pete’s Greens storage and processing facility in Craftsbury Saturday morning. The new place replaces an old barn that burned in January. Here Mr. Johnson shows off trays of sunflower sprouts growing under lights. He said the greens help him get his root crops into grocers’ vegetable coolers. Photo by Joseph Gresser

Update - Published on December 14, 2011

COVENTRY — Pete’s Greens and the town of Coventry submitted their application for a Community Development Planning Grant to the state Department of Commerce and Community Development Tuesday. If successful, the grant will provide $30,000 to fund marketing studies for proposed greenhouses that would be located at the Coventry landfill operated by a subsidiary of Casella Waste Management.

A total of eight acres of glass greenhouses would have controlled climates using excess heat from generators, owned by Washington Electric Cooperative, that burn methane captured from the landfill.

Amy Skelton of Pete’s Greens said Tuesday that figures for potential profits from the project in the final application were significantly lower than those contained in the summary approved by Coventry Selectmen, who under state rules, must be the actual grant applicants.

The original summary said the greenhouse complex could generate annual net revenue of $1-million after four years, but Ms. Skelton said Pete’s re-examined those figures and came to the conclusion that, based on actual experience, profits were likely to be half that amount, or $500,000 annually.

Ms. Skelton said the revised figure was included in the final grant application.

COVENTRY — Pete’s Greens and Casella Waste Management have shaken hands on a deal that could allow the grower to build eight acres of greenhouses at the company’s Coventry landfill. The greenhouses would be warmed with excess heat from nearby Washington Electric Cooperative (WEC) generators, fueled by methane gas captured from the landfill.

If a feasibility study is favorable, the project could quadruple the grower’s vegetable production and result in the creation of 20 to 30 jobs, according to a Community Development Planning Grant application.

Coventry selectmen agreed to apply for the grant after a sparsely attended public hearing held Friday, December 2. The grant application asks the state Department of Commerce and Community Development for $30,000 to pay for a market feasibility study and business plan for the project. The Northeastern Vermont Development Association (NVDA) would administer the grant if the application is successful.

According to Amy Skelton of Pete’s Greens, the plan has been in the works for over a year, since well before the January fire that destroyed a barn containing production equipment and about $250,000 worth of stored vegetables. That diverted the attention of Pete Johnson, the company’s namesake, to the construction of a new 16,000-square-foot storage and processing facility on the company’s home farm in Craftsbury, she said.

The fire did not halt Mr. Johnson’s interest in the Coventry project, though.

“Pete came to a meeting of our board early this year, days after the fire,” recalled WEC Executive Director Avram Patt. “I thought he was going to cancel.”

WEC generates most of the energy its members use at a small generating plant on the grounds of the New England Waste Systems (NEWS) landfill in Coventry. NEWS is owned by Casella.

In the plant, five large Caterpillar generators burn methane gas reclaimed from the landfill. Before the plant was built that gas was burned off as it came out of the ground.

Mr. Patt said his cooperative has “wanted to do something with the waste heat since the plant went on line.” He said WEC is very pleased at the prospect of partnering with Pete’s and Casella.

Jerry Leone, who heads Casella’s gas to energy programs, said his company is very pleased at the prospect of working with Pete’s. He said the project would “utilize heat that would otherwise be exhausted to the atmosphere.”

He said there is a greenhouse project similar to the one proposed by Pete’s operating in western New York, but not at a Casella landfill. Methane power plants are becoming more common in the U.S., with 500 in operation at landfills around the country, but only 3 to 5 also include a greenhouse operation, Mr. Leone said.

According to Ms. Skelton, the WEC generators are water cooled. The water from the generators will be piped underground to the greenhouse site, 3,000 feet away.

She said pumps will move the heated water through insulated pipes to the greenhouses. Cool water will be piped back to cool the generators in the closed-loop system.

Mr. Leone said, “We sell WEC the gas, they’ll sell the heat to us and we’ll turn around and sell it to Pete’s.”

According to the grant application, the project will be set up on a 100-acre field. Mr. Johnson said in an earlier interview that the location of the site was critical because it is very expensive to pipe the heated water over a long distance.

The grant said the site was also picked because it offered enough arable land to make the project worthwhile, and would provide the greenhouses with relatively unobstructed sunlight.

The greenhouses will be glass Venlo style greenhouses, built on a Dutch model. According to the grant application a “Venlo style greenhouse is a completely closed system that allows the grower more control over the growing process while using less energy.”

Ms. Skelton said the new greenhouses will permit Pete’s to grow more crops during the “shoulder seasons,” the periods when fall shades into winter and winter turns to spring.

This will allow Pete’s to grow greens, carrots, cabbages and broccoli, among other crops later and earlier in the season than would otherwise be possible.

On a tour of his new production facility in Craftsbury Saturday, Mr. Johnson said it is important for his sales to have greens available throughout the year. Congressman Peter Welch addresses the crowd at an open house at Pete’s Greens’ new barn in Craftsbury on Saturday. Photo by Bethany M. DunbarWithout the greens, purchasers are less likely to buy root crops, he said.

At present Pete’s grows radish and sunflower shoots to meet that demand, as well as claytonia or miners lettuce. With the heated greenhouses, the range of vegetables the company offers could be greatly increased, Ms. Skelton said.

At present Pete’s has only one and a half acres under greenhouses, most of which are unheated.

After the fire Pete’s Greens took on debt for the first time in the company’s history. Ms. Skelton said that debt load would probably grow if the greenhouse project moves forward.

She said Northern Community Investment Corporation has expressed an interest in helping with financing for the project. Mr. Johnson has also discussed the idea with other investors, she said.

According to projections included in the grant application, the project “could generate a net profit after one year, and a net profit could exceed $1-million at the end of four years.”

Ms. Skelton said she did not have figures for the cost of the project, but said she thought it would be in the millions, not the hundred thousands.

She said the project would likely be built in two four-acre stages.

The grant application projects a four-fold increase in vegetable production. On the tour Saturday, Mr. Johnson said his community-supported agriculture program distributes ten-pound packages of vegetables to 400 customers each week, or about two tons of veggies. That, he said, was about half of the company’s business.

The other half involves selling at the Montpelier Farmers Market, and to local restaurants and stores. According to the grant application, Pete’s has recently started selling to Shaw’s, Hannaford’s and Price Chopper supermarkets.

As part of the plan, Pete’s Greens says it will run a year-round farm stand on the Coventry property.

At the open house on Saturday, Mr. Johnson said that he has been driven to find new growing space away from his Craftsbury farm due, in part, to pests, which he said are attracted to farm crops. He has had to grow onions in a new field three miles distant from his farm to avoid diseases that affect those plants, he said.

Ms. Skelton said that pest and disease management strategies would be an important part of managing the new greenhouses.