Log slicing marks begin of ‘one thing actually massive’ at Madison insulation mill
MADISON, Maine — As a substitute of a ribbon, a few of Maine’s prime politicians and the White Home local weather adviser celebrated the slicing of a go online Friday to enshrine a pioneering wooden fiber insulation mill.
After years of pandemic-related hurdles to accumulate greater than $125 million in private and non-private financing, TimberHP is now the primary firm in North America to provide wooden fiber insulation. It’s already using 70 individuals on the positioning of a paper mill whose closure devastated the Somerset County city of Madison in 2016.
White Home Local weather Advisor Ali Zaidi joined Gov. Janet Mills, U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat from Maine’s 2nd District, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican, on the grand opening and led one other occasion earlier Friday at Kennebec Valley Group School in Fairfield to mark Maine surpassing a warmth pump objective and asserting a brand new one.
TimberHP founders Joshua Henry and Matthew O’Malia purchased the shuttered Madison paper mill property within the Central Maine city for $1.4 million in 2019. Their mill makes use of softwood chips to make insulation for houses and different buildings that’s renewable, recyclable and unhazardous.
Wooden fiber insulation has been extra well-liked in Europe, leaving room for TimberHP to take a number one function within the North American market. Henry, a supplies chemist, and O’Malia, an architect, mentioned Madison-based TimberHP plans to develop to 140 staff by 2026 and devour 180,000 tons of softwood chips yearly.
Zaidi acknowledged the heated political debate round “inexperienced jobs” and local weather change, however he mentioned the Madison mill exhibits clear vitality initiatives profit communities of all kinds.
“It’s not only a greener product,” Zaidi mentioned of the insulation. “It’s only a higher product.”
TimberHP is a derivative of Belfast-based constructing merchandise producer GO Lab, which picked Pittsfield-based development firm Cianbro Corp. to rehabilitate the mill that Cianbro initially constructed and Madison Paper Industries operated from 1980 till it closed in 2016 on account of a decline in demand for the paper utilized in magazines, coupons, inserts and directories.
Friday’s ribbon slicing was a key financial growth second for Madison, the Somerset County city of about 4,700 people who suffered from quite a few mill closures or relocations in the course of the twentieth century.
After the pandemic hampered start-up plans in 2020, TimberHP was additionally to seek out an array of native, state, federal and personal sources to assist finance its buy and redevelopment of the defunct paper mill, together with its sourcing of German-made manufacturing gear.
Zaidi mentioned TimberHP’s growth in Madison aligns with President Joe Biden’s local weather objectives of spurring funding in environmentally-friendly constructing supplies. The Mills administration’s present local weather plan additionally requires Maine’s energy grid to characteristic 80 p.c renewable vitality by 2030 and one hundred pc by 2050.
However Friday’s log-cutting ceremony was as a lot about Madison because it was the sector. Collins famous the return of producing in a rising trade, whereas Henry acknowledged a objective of reclaiming the spirit of the city with the primary Maine mill “constructed from scratch” to open in additional than 40 years.
“I feel we’re giving delivery to one thing actually massive,” Mills mentioned.
