A section of the 35-tracker solar farm at Smugglers' Notch Resort, with the ski trails on Madonna Mountain in the background. (photo: Smugglers' Notch Resort)

Smuggs Goes Solar

Jeffersonville, VT – Well accustomed to carefully tracking snow storms throughout the winter season, northern Smuggler’s Notch Resort will now be tracking something new— the sun.

The northern Vermont ski and snowboard resort has installed 35 Vermont-made AllSun  solar trackers, which use GPS and wireless technology to follow the sun throughout the day, boosting energy production.  The 150kW project will produce approximately 205,000 kWh per year and supply the energy for most of the resort’s Village Lodge, which houses Bootleggers’ Lounge, Riga-Bello’s Pizzeria, the Green Mountain Deli, and the Ben & Jerry’s Scoop Shop.

“We’re always looking for ways to increase our sustainability in energy and other areas, so when we were approached by AllEarth Renewables the project seemed worthy of exploration. It’s a good second step to follow our first smaller solar project, the eight panel solar hot water generator on a condominium building, which is saving about 1,000 gallons of propane a year,” said Mark Delaney, Smugglers’ vice president for corporate development.

RELATED STORY:  2024-25 Ski Season Progress Report as of November 20, 2024
A section of the 35-tracker solar farm at Smugglers' Notch Resort, with the ski trails on Madonna Mountain in the background. (photo: Smugglers' Notch Resort)
A section of the 35-tracker solar farm at Smugglers' Notch Resort, with the ski trails on Madonna Mountain in the background. (photo: Smugglers' Notch Resort)

Smuggs was designated an Environmental Leader by the state of Vermont in 2006 and has been recertified as such each year since.  The resort’s first entry into solar generation occurred in 2007, when a small solar hot water installation went on the roof of one of the North Hill community’s Tamaracks buildings.

The new solar installation is made up of AllSun Trackers manufactured locally by AllEarth Renewables of nearby Williston, Vt., which use technology to boost solar energy production by up to 45 percent over roof-top installations.  The ground-mounted solar systems are designed for homes, businesses, non-profits, and commercial-scale installations.

“Not only do our ski areas have an invested interest in environmental stewardship, but they also have a platform to model energy leadership to hundreds of thousands of people a year.  It’s exciting to see Smuggler’s walking the talk here,” said David Blittersdorf, CEO of AllEarth Renewables.

“With the scope of operations here at Smugglers’, there are unlimited opportunities to demonstrate good environmental stewardship. And with ongoing innovations in green technology, we’re looking forward to many more exciting projects that complement our stewardship priorities,” added Delaney.

RELATED STORY:  2024-25 Ski Season Progress Report as of November 30, 2024

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