Wind Turbine Facts

Wind Turbine Tours now available, click here for more information.

Thanks for everybody who made this possible. There was a lot of work involved and Berkshire East is sending a big thanks to the town of Charlemont, Greenfield Savings Bank, Sustainable Energy Development, Powerwind, the construction crews from a lot of great companies and the people within Berkshire East who kept this thing on track.

Berkshire East's still to be named 900kWh wind turbine, produces 100% of the Berkshire East's annual electrical need. This makes Berkshire East the first ski area in the nation to produce 100% of our electricity from an onsite, renewable source.

• The turbine will generate approximately 2.2 million kWh of electricity each year

• The wind turbine is 277 feet tall

• Each blade is 91 feet long, there are three of them

• The center of the hub, is about 195 feet in the air.

• The blades spin at 27 rpm, at maximum.

• The installed turbine price was approximately $3 million

Berkshire East received a renewable energy grant from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center for $440,000. The first part of the grant was a $70,000 research grant that proved the viability of the turbine. The second part paid for a portion of the installation. Berkshire East is also supported by a Federal Treasury grant that helps to offset a significant portion of the costs.  Payback for this project will take approximately 7-10 years.

• This machine will power 100% of our facility!

• You could reach similar savings in greenhouse gasses by ...

  • Planting 85,356 trees per year

  • Driving 2,338,400 less miles per year

  • Burning 94,372 less gallons of fuel oil per winter

• Is made by Powerwind, and is considered one of the best manufactured turbines on the market

• We spent nearly 3 years researching this project, spent 7 months in permitting and considered many different options

• The nacelle houses the generator and has a window out the top to look around

• The hub and three blades went up together in one piece

• This machine is located nearly 3500 feet from the nearest house