Watts for Wishes: Solar energy partnership warms hearts

ST. ALBANS — Everyone’s day was made a little brighter Monday. There was a Make-A-Wish Vermont donation, a foster child recovering from leukemia with her forever mom, Vermont’s dedication to clean energy finding success as solar panels churned out electricity, and the sun above.
“It’s a great day to be celebrating a solar project and celebrating a community donation,” said AllEarth Renewables CEO David Blittersdorf at the Northwest State Correctional Facility (NSCF).
Everything came together at the St. Albans prison, where Dept. of Corrections Commissioner Andy Pallito, Blittersdorf, project development company SolarSense CEO Chris Fraga, Make-A-Wish Vermont CEO James Hathaway, Alburgh nine-year-old Taylor Wells and her adoptive mother, Cheryl, and a number of others gathered.
Everyone stood amidst 65 solar trackers (24 panels each), a 500-kilowatt, $1.8 million project that went live last December. The trackers, manufactured and maintained by AllEarth Renewables of Williston and kept on land leased from the state, generate around 800,000 kilowatt-hours per year for the facility and seven other state buildings in Montpelier.