First Wind Turbine at a Vermont Ski Area Under Construction

Bolton Valley Resort, a locally owned and operated family ski and snowboard area, has announced construction of a wind turbine that will be operational in late autumn. It is the first wind turbine to be constructed at a Vermont ski area.

The turbine will be located near the top of the resort's Vista Quad lift in an existing clearing adjacent to the ski patrol hut. It is designed to produce in excess of 300,000 kilowatts of power annually, the equivalent of electricity consumed by 40-to-45 Vermont households.

"This is a great day for Bolton Valley and our loyal family of skiers and riders," said Larry Williams, who owns the resort with Doug Nedde. They are Burlington business partners in Redstone Group. "Since acquiring the ski area three years ago we’ve been committed to a program of environmental stewardship in our operations. Adding wind power is a significant investment but will yield tremendous returns for our ski area and Vermont.  We want to thank our skiers and riders for their continued support, which has played a major role in our decision to continue moving forward at Bolton Valley."

The turbine, a Northwind 100 manufactured by Northern Power Systems of Barre, VT measures 121 feet in height from the ground to the top of the tower. The distance from ground to the top of the blade is 156 feet. Each blade is coated with Teflon to protect against icing. It is the same process used on turbines in the Bering Sea. The turbine will not be obviously visible from beyond five miles away from the site.

The turbine will be set up to feed excess power that is not consumed by Bolton Valley into the grid through the Vermont net metering program. It is the first turbine at a Vermont ski area and just the second at a ski area in the United States.

Local contractors, headed up by Alteris Renewables of Montpelier, VT, are being utilized for site preparation and for construction, which is scheduled to be completed in late autumn.