Powered for Processing
42 Degrees is a new marijuana processing plant based in Kalkaska, Michigan. Windemuller worked on a design-build project for the new facility, installing 10 electrical panels and handling all wiring for the first phase of the project.
Overview
Residents of Michigan voted in November 2018 to legalize recreational marijuana sales—a law that officially went into effect on December 1, 2019. To make way for the new legalization status quo, the state has issued numerous licenses to allow businesses to grow, process, and sell marijuana. One of those businesses is 42 Degrees in Kalkaska.
Ultimately, 42 Degrees has plans to turn its sizable facility into an all-encompassing marijuana operation—one that will handle everything from cultivation to harvesting to extraction to processing under the same roof. For this project, a phase one design-build, 42 Degrees was seeking to set up a laboratory for extraction. In addition to explosion-proof rooms, industrial freezers, and other equipment for extracting THC from marijuana plants, the facility required a detailed electrical fit-out, including a 50-kilowatt generator to run all essential loads. Windemuller was tasked with installing the transformer and doing all the wiring for the power and lighting in the facility.
The Challenge
While this project was Windemuller’s first foray into the rapidly growing world of marijuana processing facilities, the project went very smoothly and had few challenges or hurdles to speak of. The facility was wide open for us to do our work, and the timeline was extremely reasonable.
The biggest challenge was likely the sheer amount of wiring that had to happen. We were putting in 10 electrical panels—five for normal power, five for emergency power—and had to work with a hard lid drywall ceiling in both rooms where those installations were happening. Without a drop ceiling to run wiring above—and with no option to run wiring underground—we had a lot of exposed conduit that we had to keep neat and clean.
The Solution
To make sure our wiring didn’t end up looking like a chaotic, tangled mess, we turned to our detail and layout department to plan out a clean, neat design. The end result was an organized and aesthetically streamlined collection of panels and conduits that served the purposes of the facility and satisfied the client.
