Greenly - Green Blog

In the ski business, opening first is a big deal. People will flock to your mountain just so they can get in the first tracks for the season. The issue with opening first is that it usually consists of a large and extreme costly snow making operation. If you make snow and then the weather warms, the investment washes away. Many resorts can’t make this bet due to the high cost of electricity to run the pump to provide water all the way up the mountainside.

A 1.5MW wind turbine provides approximately 33% of the electrical demands for Jiminy Peak annually.

One resort, Jiminy Peak in western Massachusetts, has found a way to beat the odds. Two summers ago, Jiminy Peak installed a GE 1.5MW wind turbine, named Zephyr, midway up the mountain’s 2000 foot peak.  For full details on the wind turbine itself, see the Jiminy Peak wind turbine page.

During the winter the turbine can produce up to half of the resort’s power and annually provides a third of the power for Jiminy Peak. The wind turbine greatly reduces Jiminy Peak’s electric costs and allows it to make a bet on snowmaking without the large environmental impact usually associated with doing so.

The result?  Jiminy Peak has been able to open two to four weeks earlier than other resorts in the area. Such a jump start to the season has paid off, with the resort just recently announced that the 2008-2009 season has had a record number of skier up until this point in the year. This is an amazing feat given the dire status of the economy, and shows that greenovation pays off in multiple ways.