Effingham, IL: Hodgson Mill Inc., a leading national producer of All-Natural and Organic Whole Grain foods, has added two wind turbines to successfully complete the second phase of a new company "green initiative" that is bringing renewable energy to the company headquarters and food manufacturing facility.
Conducted in partnership with Midwest Green Energy LLC, a Central Illinois renewable energy company, the hybrid renewable energy project of solar and wind systems is well underway.
"We are pleased to partner with Hodgson Mill on this innovative renewable energy project," says Joe Driscoll, co-owner of Midwest Green Energy. "The completion of the second phase of this multi-phased project is moving Hodgson Mill toward having one of the largest privately owned renewable energy hybrid systems in the state of Illinois."
The renewable energy systems at the Hodgson Mill headquarters consists of 4 solar module arrays and two 12kW second generation Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs). Each solar module array is ground-mounted on a dual-axis solar tracking system producing 3.4kW of electrical power.
The solar tracking system automatically rotates to capture the full power generated by the sun, improving output by 24 percent in the winter and 42 percent in the summer when compared to a fixed array solar installation. The newly installed wind turbines use the latest technology that can generate power in winds as low as 6 mile per hour.
"Hodgson Mill has always been proud of our commitment to the environment. In a way, you can say that throughout the history of the company, nature has played a role in our energy supply. In the original mill we used waterpower and now we're using solar and wind power," says Ray Martin, vice president of sales and marketing. "Our customers could always feel good about buying our high quality, all-natural and organic products. Now they can feel great about how we produce them in a sustainable way utilizing renewable energy."
"We feel that our investment in renewable energy is just the right thing to do. We hope other manufactures will follow suit," says Bob Goldstein, president of Hodgson Mill. "If we all do a little bit, just think of the positive impact we could have on our environment. We encourage retailers, vendors and customers to contact us with questions regarding our company's green energy initiative and other efforts to conduct sustainable business and manufacturing processes."
With a strong focus on the environment, Hodgson Mill has implemented a robust recycling process consistently able to reduce, reuse and recycle 99 percent of all material waste produced during product manufacturing. Hodgson Mill has always applied the "premium quality, nothing added, nothing taken away" philosophy to produce wholesome All-Natural Whole Grain foods, and distributes its products nationally through natural and specialty food distributors.
