Ski Resort Turns To Solar For Energy

(Host) Smugglers Notch Resort in Jeffersonville has a new sustainable energy project on the horizon.

Planning Manager Dan Maxon says the ski resort hopes to build about two acres of solar trackers at a new solar farm.

(Maxon) "Smugglers is working to develop a 35-array solar farm a couple of miles down the road, in conjunction with All Earth Renewables."

(Host) Maxon says the resort has been looking for an opportunity to take some responsibility for its energy. He says this project will help power a major building in the resort village.

(Maxon) "It should supply about 85 percent of the electricity that we use in our village lodge/restaurant here in the main village."

(Host) The solar array will be at the southern end of a ten-acre field owned by the resort. The plan is now before the state Public Service Board.

Maxon admits not everyone is thrilled with the project. But he says the resort plans to shield the project as much as possible from local homes and roads.

(Maxon) "There are a couple of neighbors who are going to see this project. Right now we're finalizing our landscape plans, screening. We're probably going to put in a hundred or more trees to screen their views and some of the views from the county roads."

(Host) Solar trackers are mounted on poles, and can rotate to follow the sun. Maxon says he hopes some, if not all of the trackers will be installed by the end of the year.