DRYDEN — A Dryden-based company focusing on locally-grown food is receiving federal funding to lower its energy consumption while increasing its production.
AgriTech North, which cultivates fresh foods through in-door soil-free produce all year round, was announced this week as a recipient of $100,000 in FedNor funding to buy and install a new solar tri-generation system.
AgriTech North’s CEO Benjamin Feagin Jr. said the system produces three times as much energy from the same solar footprint by harvesting thermal energy from the sun.
“It is essentially a combination of hybrid solar panels, which are essentially solar panels with a radiator in them, and an adsorption chiller which can convert excess heat in summer to cooling,” said Feagin.
“We do all this without the use of refrigerants, which is ultimately the goal to enable rural and remote communities to replicate these systems without reliance on red seal trades for maintenance, which are scarce in the North.”
Without a refrigerant-based cooling system, the new solar tri-generation system helps reduce the need to hire a skilled tradesperson for specialized maintenance and repair.
“Even in our highway community of Dryden, it is difficult to find someone to respond to emergencies with our air conditioners on short notice, and while we wait, our entire crop dies. This inevitably causes more than a month of clean-up and several months before the farm is operational again. This has happened to us four times in the last year alone. So, moving away from refrigerant-based systems promises to deliver exceptional productivity improvements for indoor farms,” Feagin said.
AgriTech North heavily relies on energy-efficient equipment to ensure sustainable growth, but that new and improved technology comes with a hefty price tag.
Feagin said small businesses in the north operate at a higher cost than in urban centres, which often leaves them dependent on finding funding opportunities where they are available.
“We intend that our innovations will permit operations like ours to reduce costs and thereby achieve economic independence significantly; organizations like FedNor are helping make this possible by investing in novel solutions to rural and remote community year-round growing,” said Feagin.
AgriTech North applied to FedNor’s Northern Ontario Development Program (NODP) which provides funding to companies that contribute to community economic growth. The company’s mission is to provide food security for Indigenous communities where the price of fresh-farmed produce is nearly double the amount in commercial retail stores.
“Canadians need a safe and reliable food supply, especially in more rural or remote communities. These important investments will help farmers in Northern Ontario to scale up, improve productivity, and increase yields. It’s also concrete support for good-paying jobs and middle-class families in the region,” said Patty Hajdu, the minister responsible for FedNor, in a statement included in the news release.
