Happy Thanksgiving:
As you drive along the Mohawk Trail you will certainly notice that a familiar view is changed. Rising 291 feet from a scrappy clump of hemlocks on the northwest slopes of Berkshire East Ski Area is our new Powerwind 56, 900 kWh wind turbine. Sporting a smoky paint job known as ‘wind tower gray’ and possessing the ability to produce 100% of our electricity on site from the stiff winter winds, this beautifully engineered wind turbine represents our commitment to maintaining a responsible local business.
Berkshire East opened as a small rope tow operated off the back of a gas powered tractor 60 winters ago. Many of you grew up in that great era of skiing. While much has changed in the ski business, Berkshire East remains firmly rooted in the New England tradition of ingenuity and self reliance.
Careful planning has allowed us to grow, and remain competitive, but running a ski area takes a lot of energy. We operate 4 chair lifts, 2 magic carpets, have night skiing not to mention making snow with 130 snow guns and employ up to 220 people.
In 2007, Berkshire East and the rest of the nation experienced a serious crisis associated with the dramatic increase in the price of power. To survive and remain competitive, we researched our options and came to a dramatic conclusion; Berkshire East needed to produce 100% of our own power.
During the past decade our political leaders (George Bush, Deval Patrick and President Obama) came to a similar conclusion, and constructed public policy to create incentives supporting localized, decentralized, and alternative power production. These incentives helped, but this project still required an unprecedented investment on our part.
Deciding that we needed a wind turbine was easy, the hard part was figuring out how to actually get it done. We engaged the town in this process and worked with them to integrate their needs in our plan. Overall turbine height was lowered and the Audubon Society was engaged to participate in an ongoing bird study.
The benefits of the wind turbine are huge. For the environment it is the equivalent of driving an average car 2,338,400 miles less per year, planting 85,356 more trees per year, burning 94,372 less gallons of fuel per winter, or by removing about 1,400 tons of the greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere every year.
The turbines benefits reach beyond the environment and our business, an educational station will be installed at Hawlemont School to monitor the turbines’ daily, monthly and yearly production, a $2,500 yearly scholarship to a four year school in the name of Elissa Anne Henderson will be created, and a $25,000 preservation fund for local historical buildings, to be replenished during an annual fund raising event which will be held each winter at Berkshire East Ski Area. Most significantly, Renewable Energy Credits will be donated to Hawlemont School to offset the school's yearly energy consumption.
For Berkshire East, the moment the turbine plugs into the grid will be colossal. Family run ski areas are disappearing. Over 500 family ski areas have closed in the past 45 years, resulting in less choice and more expensive resorts. At the B-East we are proud to offer our dedicated guests an affordably priced alternative to the more expensive resorts up north. We are proud to be a place where skiing can still remain a rite of passage and not a weekend excursion for the wealthy.
So, when you look at the wind turbine, we hope that you will see more than 291 feet of spinning fiberglass and steel. We hope that you see the viability of a local business where families have been coming together for 50 years. We hope you see a structure that will produce local, clean energy, and will result in the reduction in greenhouse gasses, however slight that is on the global scale, and we hope you see a structure that is a benefit to the local community and will be an important part of it for the next twenty years.
See you on the slopes (or zip, zip away).
Jon Schaefer
Assistant General Manager
Berkshire East Ski Area
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