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North Adams Officials Query Solar Project AgreementBy Tammy Daniels, iBerkshires Staff
10:39PM / Tuesday, February 14, 2012 | |
 NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The city could have a 4.6 megawatt photovoltaic system in operation by next fall, if permitting runs smoothly.
That was the message from principals of Blue Wave Capital, John DeVillars and Eric Graber-Lopez, who answered questions at an unusual public hearing with the City Council on Tuesday.
Members of the council, Planning Board, Zoning Board of Appeals and Airport Commission were joined by citzens in questioning the solar project, which is expected to cut the city's electrical costs by half.
"When the switch is flipped the city has the opportunity to save significant money over the next 20 years," said Mayor Richard Alcombright. "We have only to 31 Comments
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MCLA Gets $120K Grant for Co-Generation Energy Study| 12:45PM / Tuesday, January 03, 2012 | |
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — As the result of an energy study conducted for Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts by the state's Division of Capital Asset Management, the college has been awarded $120,000 to complete a feasibility study.
The feasibility study will determine what it will take for MCLA to renovate its power plant with a co-generation unit, update its boilers to provide additional steam to heat the campus and run the co-generator, and to determine the savings derived from burning wood chips.
The energy study, completed nine months ago, determined renewable energy sources that MCLA might utilize. This prompted the upcoming feasibility study.
"We thought MCLA may be a good 0 Comments
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Lookout For Eagles & Other Feathered Friends| 04:02PM / Tuesday, December 20, 2011 | |
 NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — There's still time to participate in the annual Christmas Bird Count, and to get ready for the January eagle count.
The bird count started Dec. 14 but runs to Jan. 1. Bird lovers throughout the state participate in the nation's longest running wildlife survey, now in its 112th year.
Northern and Central Berkshire held their counts this past weekend but a Southern Berkshire group will be counting on Sunday, Jan. 1. The fee is $5 and the contact is Rene Laubach.
The data collected by bird observers over the past century have allowed researchers, conservation biologists, and other interested individuals to study the long-term health and status of bird populations 0 Comments
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Mass MoCA Installing Wood Pellet Heating System| 02:29PM / Tuesday, December 20, 2011 | |
 NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Biomass Commodities Corp. is installing a wood-pellet heating boiler system at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art slated to come online this January.
"The project allows Mass MoCA to diversify a nice portion of its heating to a renewable fuel that is produced locally," said Averill Cook, president and founder of Biomass. "Much of the raw material comes from our region as an otherwise waste byproduct of high quality timber production."
This installation is the first of its kind in Berkshire County, according to Cook. It will allow the museum to utilize an existing ash silo from the former mill's old coal plant for its wood pellet storage. 1 Comment
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Geminids Meteor Shower To Peak On WednesdayStaff Reports, iBerkshires
09:32AM / Tuesday, December 13, 2011 | |
 NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The last and most intense meteor shower of the year will be visible all week.
The Geminids shower will peak on Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning and even though a waning gibbous moon is expected to obstruct the view, if the skies are clear up to 40 meteors per hour can be seen, according to NASA.
The shower is considered the best one of the year because typically between 80 and 120 meteors can be seen an hour. The shower comes from a point in the constellation Gemini.
The meteors are pieces of debris from Phaethon, which sciencetist have not quite defined. Phaethon has the brightness similar to a comet but its orbit is like an asteroid, according to 0 Comments
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Guest Column: Lessons Learned — Embracing the Clean Energy EconomyBy Sen. Benjamin B. Downing, Guest Column
09:38AM / Tuesday, November 29, 2011 | |
 With a state unemployment rate hovering around 7 percent and the long-term specter of climate change it is easy to understand why many public officials, myself included, tout the potential for green jobs.
Training our work force to perform as solar installers, home weatherizers, etc., helps put people to work while getting us on the path to an energy-efficient clean energy economy.
Recently, high-profile missteps on the state and national level – Evergreen Solar in Massachusetts and Solyndra in California – have lead some to doubt the strategy of investment in energy efficiency and clean energy. These are the wrong lessons to take from these two cases, but there are lessons to 6 Comments
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Feed the Berkshires Researching Local Food ProductionBy Stephanie Farrington, Community Submission
09:56AM / Tuesday, November 22, 2011 | |
 NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — If there's one subject that touches everyone's life, it's food.
Many of us are trying to eat healthy and often that means eating local. The Berkshires are known nationwide for fresh, local food and beautiful scenic farmland. But do we really know what we have? And maybe more importantly, do we know how to protect and support the production of local foods in our region?
As part of Sustainable Berkshires' developing community plan for our region, the new Feed the Berkshires group held a training session for volunteers in the basement of First Baptist Church on Nov. 14. The meeting was facilitated by Berkshire Regional Planning Commission Senior Planner Amy 0 Comments
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2.2MW Solar Array Eyed for StamfordStaff Reports, iBerkshires
11:23PM / Monday, November 14, 2011 | |
 STAMFORD, Vt. — A Connecticut energy firm wants to site a massive solar array in the tiny town of Stamford.
According to a report in the Bennington Banner on Monday, Vermont Energy Parks LLC of Southport, Conn., has given notice of its intent to apply to the Vermont Public Service Board to install a 2.2-megawatt solar array off Sumner Road.
In a presentation to the Selectmen in August, Gabriel M. Selig, president of Southport Power LLC, said the Stamford solar farm would comprise some 7,900 panels on 20 acres of land owned by the Orton family. The project would not "compromise the aesthetics of our town and will not negatively impact the natural animal habitat in the area," 0 Comments
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Keep Farming Initiative Launching in North BerkshireBy Stephanie Farrington, Community Submission
11:17AM / Sunday, October 23, 2011 | |
 NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Sustainable Berkshires is moving ahead with a major survey of food resources in the Northern Berkshires in partnership with a newly formed local agricultural initiative, Keep Farming.
The launch of Northern Berkshire Keep Farming and related discussion will be held at First Baptist Church at 131 Main St. on Monday, Oct. 24, beginning at 7 p.m.
This meeting will focus on agriculture and it will be considerably more involved than the other break-out groups related to Sustainable Berkshires' county and municipal planning.
Over the next six months, Keep Farming volunteers will carry out extensive surveys of food resources, agricultural patterns, the economics of 3 Comments
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Wind Siting Hearing Replayed on Local Access Stations| 09:44AM / Tuesday, October 18, 2011 | |
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The county's four community-access cable stations will begin airing video of a public hearing on the proposed Wind Energy Siting Reform Act, held Sept. 7 at Jiminy Peak. The act would expedite development of wind plants throughout the commonwealth.
The hearing was convened by the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy, of which state Sen. Benjamin Downing, D-Pittsfield, is co-chair. Thirty-six people, most of them from communities in Western Massachusetts, testified during the six-hour session.
Cable stations will air the testimony in three 2-hour parts. Serving South County, CTSB's Channel 18 will screen the hearing's first part on Friday, Oct. 0 Comments
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