{"id":2420,"date":"2007-08-16T02:09:00","date_gmt":"2007-08-16T02:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sustainablog.greenoptions.com\/2007\/08\/16\/massachusetts-ski-resort-harnesses-the-wind-to-make-snow\/"},"modified":"2007-08-16T02:09:00","modified_gmt":"2007-08-16T02:09:00","slug":"massachusetts-ski-resort-harnesses-the-wind-to-make-snow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/massachusetts-ski-resort-harnesses-the-wind-to-make-snow\/","title":{"rendered":"Massachusetts Ski Resort Harnesses the Wind to Make Snow"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Thought I’d step outside of the Midwest tonight for a look at a great story from the Northeast. I’ve noted before that the
ski industry<\/a> around the world is taking a hard hit from climate change. This, coupled with the green bent of many skiers and snowboarders, has led numerous ski resorts around the country to begin purchasing renewable energy. The Jiminy Peak Mountain Resort<\/a> in Hancock, Massachusetts, has upped the ante, though: they’ve purchased their own wind turbine, at the hefty price of $3.9 million.<\/p>\n

This is a lot of money to buy green cred, but, ultimately, the decision to make such a large investment came down to the bottom line: electricity prices rose by 50% in the 2005-06 ski season, but 7% less skiers came to Jiminy Peak last winter because of warm weather. To help offset the cost of the turbine, the resort will sell part of the electricity generated to local residents. According to the Boston Globe<\/a>,<\/p>\n

By using half of the energy to help power the resort and the other half to power local residences and businesses, Jiminy Peak hopes to receive $138,000 in renewable energy credits and $161,000 for the energy sold to outside consumers in each of the next 10 years. At the resort, windmill-generated energy will replace a third of that produced by oil, coal, or natural gas, powering ski lifts and snow-making machines<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It gets even better. The resort’s website notes that it its need for electricity peaks at the same time that area winds are the most reliable: in the winter. According to Jiminy Peak’s renewable energy page<\/a> on it’s website:<\/p>\n