Berkshire East has added solar panels to its wind turbine to generate more power than the area will use.
This is the wind turbine on the top of Jiminy Peak ski area.Burke Mountain has become the fourth ski area in the country to start generating its own electricity.
This summer, Burke installed a wind turbine that will provide all the power to operate a new high-speed quad chair it has installed. It will provide about 20 percent of the power needed for the resort, said Hannah Collins, marketing manager for Burke.
Ski areas have been long concerned about global warming and are striving toward going green. Many have purchased grooming machines that run on used cooking oil, added recycling programs and insulated lodges and are using energy-efficient lighting.
But Jiminy Peak, in Hancock, was the first to make its own energy, installing a windmill on the top of its mountain in 2007. Bolton Valley in Vermont followed in 2009 when it installed its own turbine and the Charlemont ski area Berkshire East became the third to put in a wind turbine, starting operations in January 2011.
The New England resorts are the only ones in the country to do so and all four are considered smaller areas, according to the National Association of Ski Areas.
“It met, if not exceeded, our expectations, and one of the positives is the number of people who chose to come skiing at Jiminy because we have a wind turbine,” said Betsy Strickler, director of sales and marketing for Jiminy Peak.
Jiminy surveyed skiers and snowboarders recently and about 13,000 people said they came because they had heard about the turbine and were curious about it or they liked the idea that the area was making an effort to improve the environment.
An unexpected part of it is a lot of school groups have brought students who hike up the mountain to learn about the turbine, she said.
Jiminy owners estimated it would take about seven years in electricity savings to pay back the $3.9 million investment. It is now expected to take a little longer because the costs of electricity dipped, Strickler said.
As anticipated, the windmill is generating about one-third of the area’s electricity, she said.
At the smaller Berkshire East, the 900 kilowatt wind turbine is providing all the energy needed for the resort. Still, this year it installed a series of solar panels to give the area a second source of power, Christopher Loftus, director of marketing, said.
With the mountain already connected to the power grid at the top of the mountain, it made sense to try generating