Donate to WERU Today!Producer/Host: Steve Kahl
Power for the People: Energy education and solutions for Mainers and Maine communities
This month:
Overview of the new Maine Uniform Energy and Building code.
Guest/s:
Erin Scally, PassiveHausMaine.org Training Director ([email protected])
Randy Rand, PassiveHausMaine.org Training Coordinator ([email protected])
FMI:
www.maine.gov/dps/fmo/building-codes
About the host:
Steve Kahl developed and has hosted Power for the People since 2015. He retired
after 9 years as Professor of Environmental Science at Thomas College in 2024, where
he taught environmental and energy courses and advised the student sustainability
club. He is a member of the Friends of Quarry Road Trails board of directors in
Waterville where he is the main advocate for a net-zero energy welcome center. Steve
advised the board of WERU-FM on making the station studios 100% solar powered and
worked with Sundog Solar in Searsport to make it happen back in 2020.
Steve is a career lake researcher in addition to roles in energy and sustainability, and
was a founding member of the Lake Stewards of Maine in the 1990s and is currently
back on their board. He is past board President of Maine Lakes, the NH Lake
Association, and the Lake Winnipesaukee Association.
Prior to moving home to Maine in 2004, he was a member of the Energy Commission in
Plymouth NH where he obtained Dept of Energy funding for the renovation of a town
office building to net-zero energy as well as the installation of 160 KW of solar PV
panels on town properties, including a major PV array at the sewage treatment plant
that offsets 40% of its electrical costs.
Steve’s past positions include Sustainability Director at Unity College where he
developed a plan for the college to become 100% solar powered and earned the college
the prestigious STARS Gold sustainability ranking with the American Association of
Sustainability in Higher Education. Before that, he was Director of Environmental and
Energy Strategies for the James Sewall Company of Old Town where he led a Maine
Technology Institute research project that found that the Maine electric grid could be
100% solar powered if all suitably-oriented rooftops had solar PV panels. His lake
research was done while serving as founding director of the Senator George Mitchell
Center for Environmental Research at the University of Maine.
His own 1940s-era home is 100% electric, where he has installed two air-source heat
pumps to eliminate heating oil, a hybrid hot water heater to reduce his water heating
costs by 70%, and insulated the basement and attic to reduce the ‘stack effect’ of cold
air coming in the basement and forcing heat out of the attic. He has solar panels on his
summer place at the lake and hasn’t paid for any electricity there since 2011. In 2025,
he added 6 KW of solar PV on his main home, with the goal to be net zero energy on an
annual basis.
Steve has a Ph.D. in Earth Sciences from the University of Maine.
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