Solarized vehicle rolling... propelled by cooperation

From The Times Record

WISCASSET - With the August unveiling of a solarized electric-utility vehicle and a recent meeting to discuss Maine's emerging reputation as a leader in composite manufacturing, state officials are enthused.

"I'm excited at the possibilities," said John Richardson, state commissioner of Economic and Community Development. "This is where Maine should be, a leader in new technology."

How the state arrived in its present situation is an example of a kind of cooperation between the state, local government and a nonprofit coming together in a common effort to create economic development.

The story began a year and a half ago with a phone call to Noble Smith - a former Philadelphian who transplanted to Harpswell - from his friend Ed Kron.

Kron owns a company called Kronosport, which manufactures electric-utility vehicles (EUVs). Kron wanted Smith's help introducing the Kronosport to Maine.

Smith was familiar with the work of the Chewonki Foundation and its sustainability coordinator Peter Arnold. It was an obvious marriage - Kronosport as an alternative to the internal combustion engine and Arnold with a history of delving into alternative energy sources, such as biodiesel and hydrogen, both made on-site at Chewonki.

The news that came out of that meeting at Chewonki in May 2007 was the $15,000 Community Development Block Grant that allowed Arnold to supervise turning the donated Kronosport Taxi model into a solarized electric vehicle with solar panels on top of a specially designed canopy. The prototype was unveiled in August, but that is just the beginning, state officials hope.

"With the solar panels you get a longer ride before it needs recharging," Arnold said. "Without the solarization it will go about 25 miles. With solar, we estimate it'll go 40 miles."

Arnold explained that the prototype is a solarized vehicle, not a solar vehicle.

"The difference is that with a solar vehicle the photovoltaic energy goes straight to the wheels," he said. "With a solarized vehicle, the energy is stored in a battery, then to the wheels."

Each vehicle takes six 12-volt batteries, and can go up to 12 mph.

Kron deliberately makes his vehicles using a lightweight steel frame and fiberglass, limiting each vehicle's weight to about 500 pounds. The driver sits in what resembles a recumbent bicycle and controls the vehicle with modified handlebars. The light weight makes it a more efficient vehicle than a typical golf cart, which it resembles.

Weight is important, Arnold said, because the heavier the vehicle the more energy needed to propel it. This is the angle that rang a bell with Richardson.

"Composites are the answer," Richardson said. "And Maine is emerging as the home of composite technology."

At the unveiling, officials took turns driving the prototype solarized EUV around the town office parking lot, impressed with its ease of handling. Included in the crowd were Richardson; Arnold; Wiscasset Town Manager Arthur Faucher; Steve Hassett, president of Custom Composites in Bath, which made the canopy; Bart Chapin, of Chapin Designs, who designed the solar canopy; and Don Hudson, president of the Chewonki Foundation.

Richardson met with Kron and pitched him on composites.

"I was taken aside by Richardson," Kron said recently by telephone. "He suggested that Maine was the advance state of the art for composite manufacture and wouldn't it be nice if you made those vehicles here. It's certainly something I would consider."

Following the unveiling, Kron was taken on a tour of the iPark, an industrial park on former Maine Yankee property and a possible site for a manufacturing plant. Currently, Kron's manufacturing of the vehicles takes place in Mexico.

"Whether it happens or not," Arnold said, "this entire experience shows that renewable energy can be used for profit. It just furthers our mission here at Chewonki to promote sustainable energy."

Arnold has already set up a hydrogen-fueled electric generating operation that supplies one of Chewonki's facilities with electricity. He sees hydrogen as a further possibility for running Kronosport vehicles.

"We're very excited about the possibilities we're pursuing," Richardson said. "We're looking into a Maine Technical Institute grant. We're making a case for using Maine's resources for this exciting project."