New England States for CHANGE

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Comment by Mark Shand on February 26, 2009 at 6:40am

Virtual March on Washington video, from T. Boone Pickens!

Comment by Kim Anderson on February 7, 2009 at 12:46pm

Happy Saturday, Everyone!

Check out todays projo.com (Providence Journal online) A Prtsmouth, RI wind turbine is floating across the bay and Quonset POint has a future in turbine manufacturing! Check it out.

Also, Save Wednesday, March 11th 7-9 pm at Moses Brown School, in Providence, for a Rhode Island Renewable Energy Forum, put together by Earle Scharff, RI-01! Please let us know if you can come. It would be so nice to meet everyone and keep pushing our state, and region, forward on the path to energy independance. I look forward to meeting you!

THANKS
Kim

Comment by Mike Anthony Fernald Sr. on February 5, 2009 at 2:01am

Comment by Mike Anthony Fernald Sr. on February 3, 2009 at 3:48pm

February 3, 2009

Dear Mr. Fernald:

Thank you for contacting me with your views regarding the economic stimulus package. I appreciate your taking the time to do so.

Every day, we hear more reports of massive job losses, and Maine is no exception with an increase in its unemployment rate to seven percent. Congress must work with President Obama to get the economy moving again. I believe, however, that it is critical that Congress pass an economic stimulus bill that achieves the right balance, right size, and right mix of tax relief and spending programs to ensure that any stimulus legislation will actually boost the economy and create jobs, not just add to the soaring deficit.

In that regard, I have serious concerns with the $819 billion bill that has been approved by the U.S. House of Representatives. I am working with Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE), on a bipartisan, compromise plan that would result in a smaller and more targeted bill that would help get our economy back on track.

In addition to infrastructure investments, the stimulus should include funding to help states avoid cuts in essential health care programs, tax relief for low and middle-income families, tax incentives to help small businesses, and investments in energy conservation to help create jobs and reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

Again, thank you for contacting me. I will continue to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to come up with a final stimulus package that is bipartisan, targeted and effective.

Sincerely,
Susan M. Collins

United States Senator

SMC: dsc

Comment by Mark Shand on January 26, 2009 at 3:16pm

Earth Turbines continues to rise and shine
Burlington Free Press, Jan 26, 2009.
WILLISTON —The high ceilings contribute to an aircraft-hangar ambiance. So does the silk-screened hang glider suspended in the lobby of Earth Turbines’ Williston headquarters.

What appears to be a 1940s-era fighter engine sits idle on a forklift in the 10,000-square-foot shop space.

David Blittersdorf, 52, the company’s founder and CEO, says the market for small-scale wind generation is ready for takeoff.

He should know. Blittersdorf, a Charlotte resident, founded wind-power testing company NRG Systems 28 years ago. With his wife and business partner, Jan Blittersdorf, he weathered industry downdrafts — and eventually propelled Hinesburg-based NRG into profitable, global markets.


For now, Earth Turbines will remain closer to home. Local demand and increasingly predictable government rebates for green energy have afforded the company a steady updraft in the Green Mountain State.

Two years ago, Blittersdorf had a single employee. Now 16 people (most of them engineers) work full time at the Harvest Lane building. By the end of the year, Blittersdorf said, their number will likely double.

Requests for domestic, grid-wired wind power, meanwhile, have increased exponentially, he added.

“We’ve been getting calls from all over,” he continued. “We’ve had to be patient. It’d be a big mistake to try to sell a turbine to someone in Texas or North Dakota.

“We don’t have a dealer network,” he said. “It’d be like buying a car but having to send it back to Detroit for servicing. The strategy all along has been to develop our testing in Vermont before we go nationwide.”

Demand-driven
What’s the attraction? Blittersdorf said more and more people consider turbines a sound, long-term investment: In areas with moderate wind (most of the Champlain Valley), a single turbine will crank out 2.5 killowatts, or the equivalent of one-third to one-half of typical residential use.

Blittersdorf’s turbines aren’t built for off-the-grid living, however. To the contrary: they’re designed to feed (and sell) surplus electricity back to the regional utility in a transaction known as net-metering.

The cost of a single turbine, installed, hovers around $30,000. Federal and state rebates can knock that price down by at least $10,000, Blittersorf said — and will likely become more generous in coming years.

Earth Turbines has 12 prototype units up and running in Vermont. Another 14 units are due up by spring.

Until recently, the rollout has been low profile. The tilt-up, monopole towers go up quickly, and by industrial standards, are easy on the landscape: they rise 100 feet from the ground, versus four times that height for “wind-farm” towers.

Within a month, Earth Turbines will likely cease to be a stealth operation.

Rise and shine
This week, Blittersdorf is finalizing contract details with the Vermont Telecommunications Authority that will place up to 200 towers in remote, broadband-challenged corners of the state. Most of them will perform the dual service of generating electricity for landowners and handling cell and wireless broadband service.

The match, Blittersdorf said, makes good use of his company’s joint expertise in micro-electronics.

“For years we’ve been building remote testing equipment that wakes up once a day and phones home with data,” he said.

Earth Turbines’ proprietary tower designs, he continued, is “game-changing technology” for cell carriers, which routinely pay at least twice as much to get the same altitude. Earth Turbines proposes to erect power-and-cell equipped towers, preconnected to the electrical grid, for about $60,000 apiece.

Under the VTA plan, landowners will get the power supplement free.

Last month, VTA Director Bill Shuttleworth gave the green light for a pilot project in Grafton that will link up power and cell companies beneath a wind turbine.

If it performs well, Shuttleworth said, the template could slash costs of land acquisition, building access roads and running new power lines — obstacles that have historically kept cell carriers out of rural Vermont.

Lean machine
Blittersdorf said his product’s competitive advantages extend beyond what he calls the “instant gratification” of plug-and-play installation.

A patent is pending on the company’s direct-drive rotor — an innovation that eliminates the need for an inverter (a device that converts direct current to alternating current, and which adds to a turbine’s bulk and cost).

Trim, upgradable electronics are a part of Earth Turbines’ inheritance from NRG, as is the smaller company’s adherence to low-inventory, “lean” manufacturing.

“We’ve learned to be patient. What we build is based on customer demand, not on forecasts about what they might want,” Blittersdorf said.

He shops out specialty manufacturing, yet encourages cross-training and versatility among its in-house employees.

That includes training them to fail now and then.

“I tell people the faster you fail, the better,” he said. “You don’t want to get into a position where everybody’s just protecting their butts. As long as you learn something and don’t repeat the mistakes, you’re further ahead.”

The lofty low-down
In conversation, Blittersdorf often refers to his work as “play” — a necessary ingredient, he said, to his entrepreneurial regimen.

He’s not disturbed that the business probably won’t break even for another year. Nor does he consider selling to a multi-national corporation once Earth Turbines turn a profit.

Yet he’s serious about the company’s mission.

“I want to build a business that has lasting power; I don’t want to retire anytime soon — maybe when I’m 70 or 80,” he said.

“My values include doing something for the world,” he continued. “We’re at a critical turning point. I’m excited because I’m a part of it.”

He looked up from his desk to the hang glider. It’s a recent hobby.

“I took it up to overcome a fear of heights,” he said. “It turns out I had a fear of falling — not a fear of heights.”

Comment by Ken Smith on January 16, 2009 at 2:43pm

New England renewable energy supporters, please join a new blog dedicated to building a distributed network of community-scale renewable energy facilities. Only with strong community support will we reach Boone's 10 year goal.

go to www.buildbabybuild.net

Comment by Mark Shand on January 15, 2009 at 6:02am

A little reminder photo for the North East and the rest of the USA for that matter. Good thing this was in the month of August.

Comment by C M on January 13, 2009 at 9:57pm

Hi all.... well, I started this group but have not had much to add lately, just following things here and in the news... BUT now I have some news ... I AM ONE STEP CLOSER to being less OIL dependent! I made an investment in an outdoor PELLET boiler.... This will be OVER THREE THOUSAND GALLONS LESS of FUEL OIL that I will be paying for!!!!! I am so happy.... with oil being LOWER priced these days it is not all about saving cash as it is about NOT SENDING MY MONEY ELSEWHERE. I am happy there will be some local pellet plants here in Vermont soon enough and someone local will have a job with my money instead. My investment was large, to heat my large bldg I spent about 14 thousand on the new system in total to get it going BUT I sleep MUCH better at night... and I am going to get my other part of the bldg off of oil next as soon as I can afford it... and my heat and hot water is on the pellet system now. Once the other side of the bldg is done it will be a total of FOUR thousand GALLONS of oil per year that WILL NOT be used here! It is a start for me and let me tell you even with fuel prices lower my heating costs since hooking up to pellet boiler ARE HALF..... so it is definitely worth it if you are looking to switch pellets are great... almost no smoke ( it is more of a steam) I have allergies and so far no problems with the boiler unlike the neighbors who kill us with the pollution and smoke from the woodburners. SO if you are thinking of going PELLETS... go for it.... no regrets here! NOW, if only my car would go on pellets... HMMMMM.... LOL.... I live to far to give up car completely but I have gotten it down to one or two trips out a week for shopping or errands etc.... try to do it ALL in one shot.... no more extra trips... every little bit helps.... ok thats it for now....

Comment by Paul on December 22, 2008 at 12:33pm

Calling all members that live in the CT-04 congressional district...

If this message is yet another duplicate, I apologize, but you know that I'm only trying to drum up a little support for our group. Please come on by and join!

Comment by Kim Anderson on November 17, 2008 at 4:11am

Hi ALL!

We just signed up yesterday for People Power and Light -offered through National Grid - our provider. It costs an extra $8-12 per month to insire 100% electricity is from renewables. They have solar, wind, bio and hydro currently in the New England area. The extra cost is 100% tax deductable. Total cost will probably be, after deductable, $50-60 per year. What an aboslute bargain to invest in renewables. EVERYONE in New England should be doing this!

Best
Kim

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