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Audet Family Continues Ag Innovation at Blue Spruce Farm

GMP power-partnership enters new phase in Bridport

photo by Mike Cameron 100 kilowatt wind turbine generator at Audet Farm in Bridport

photo by Mike Cameron Green Mountain Power President and CEO Mary Powell speaks with Addison County House Member Harvey Smith during Audet Farm Open House on Friday May 31, 2013.

Tuesday June 11, 2013

By Mike Cameron

They did it first with cow manure, now the Audet family has added another component to their long- standing partnership with Green Mountain Power in the form of a 100 kilowatt wind turbine, currently assembled and operating.

At a grand-opening-viewing celebration held at the Audet farm on Friday morning, Green Mountain Power CEO Mary Powell was obviously pleased to share with Voice readers what this means for future projects like “Cow-Power”and Community-Scale Wind Turbine Generation here in Vermont.

GMP has become a national leader in both of these non-traditional power production sources. “This sends a powerful, powerful, message that collaboration and renewable energy projects like this can make powerful, powerful, changes happen for the future. My hat's off to the Audet family because of their leadership. They were as we know the first farm to go with “Cow Power,” now there is a wind turbine and we are working on solar,” Powell explained. So it really to me is creating the model for the nation around what the farm of the future will look like.”

Asked about how innovative projects like the Audet's fit in with the overall future power production and purchased power picture for Vermont, Powell explained further; “Well I think it fit's in beautifully from my perspective because it really is the way that consumers and society want to move. We've reached a tipping point, we're hearing from more and more customers, whether their commercial customers,small businesses, or home-owners, that they want to get more personally involved with generation. The move to personal generation, I think, is a sweeping change that is going to continue to accelerate over time as long as you do the appropriate distribution and planning to support it, so that it works in concert with other larger sources that don't want to move in the direction of personal generation.” the Green Mountain Power Chief Executive shared with us.

“At the end of the day, the economics have to work. Good ideas are a dime a dozen. It is implementation that is rare. Implementation is when you find a way to make the economics work.” Powell said, while complimenting the Audet Family further for doing just that.
With the Audet's new 100 watt wind turbine generator very quietly doing its job less than 10-meters from where our next on-site interview was taking place, Vermont House Member Harvey Smith who has been actively involved in land stewardship both as a farmer and a member of the legislature was asked to comment on the Audet's power projects and what their significance will be for future personal power generation here in the Champlain Valley and elsewhere. “I think it's great, it demonstrates that the Audet's are excellent environmental stewards of the land and the two renewable energy sources fit in with the farm operation. The switching devices and the power lines were already here for the methane generation, it made it kind of a natural hook-up for the wind turbine,” Smith observed.

He went on to comment on the fact that methane digestion energy production for example is being utilized on a dozen other farms in Vermont having taken their lead from the success that the Audet/Green Mountain Power collaboration has produced.

Renewable resources are key for Vermont's energy future in Smith's view, and he has been an active supporter of it throughout his time in the legislature. We asked him about that. “It was a natural transition for me. We should be making better use of our natural resources. I'm involved with the 25/25 Project. It is a national initiative begun about 10 years ago, it's goal was to come up with 25- percent of our energy resources, not just electricity but all our energy resources from renewable generation.” The Audet project is a prime example of that.

The Turbine and tower support stands 121' tall. Each blade is 39 feet long. It can produce approximately 155,000 kWh per year. By comparison this would be about the same amount of electricity used by 25 homes. The system has a life-span of 20 years and is manufactured by Northern Power Systems factory in Barre. This is the second NPS100 wind turbine that GMP has installed in a Vermont community. The first was installed at Northlands Job Corps in Vergennes, in December of 2011.

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