July | 2011 | Information Bravo

For a number of years now, I’ve been a member of Green Start, or Mass Energy Consumers Alliance, as it’s called now. What that means is that I agreed to have an additional sum added to my electric bill every month ($1.06 on my last bill); that money goes to support renewable energy projects around New England. That may be why I recently received a postcard invitation to “Join Mass Energy at fun events to celebrate wind power this summer.” The last event of the five scheduled was “Visit Wind Turbine” in Princeton, which did sound like fun, so I signed up.

We were instructed to meet on Westminster Road in Princeton at 10:30 this morning; I kind of knew where it was but gave myself an hour to get there, so I arrived a bit early. There were already a number of cars parked on the road though, and the person directing traffic told me to continue down the road to a parking area, then walk up the Harrington Trail. Well, I found a parking area but it was nowhere near any trailhead, so I turned around and followed a bunch of other cars which had followed me. We found a sign for the Harrington Trail, so we parked at the side of the road and started walking. As we climbed, the sound of the wind turbines grew louder, and we decided it would be more expeditious to venture off the trail and bushwhack through the undergrowth to the clearing where we figured the turbines were located. Sure enough, we soon found the event organizers and the rest of the crowd.

I checked in, picked out a T-shirt and water bottle, and grabbed a bagel to munch on. Then I waited in line for a few minutes for my turn to visit the control room at the base of one tower. A staff person from PMLD (Princeton Municipal Light Department) was taking small groups of about ten at a time into the small space. There isn’t that much to see, so he mainly talked about the project. You all know that I’m kind of a geek about this stuff, so here goes:

Each turbine (there are two) generates 1.5 megawatts of electricity
The turbines generate, on an annual average, 40% of the town’s electricity
Around 800 homes are powered by these two turbines
There is much less wind in the summer than in the winter
The turbine blades act like airfoils which means that lift is created
The blades turn at 17-21 rpm, and a gearbox increases this to 1800 rpm
Energy is transformed to alternating current then power goes out to the grid
If the grid goes down, the turbines will shut down as well
Princeton’s use of electricity from the grid is reduced by the amount generated
Startup cost was $7.3 million total, and break-even is 10-12 years
The turbines have been in operation for 1.5 years, with a 25-year lifespan
The assembly is called FL1500, the gearbox is German-made
The blades and tower are American-made and shipped here from the Midwest
Turbines need to be sited in open space three times the rotor diameter

Of course, the turbines are amazing, but I accidentally deleted my photos of them, so you’ll just have to believe me when I say so!

I had also signed up to hike to the summit of Mount Wachusett, so after I gawked at the turbines, I took out the map we were given and made my way back to the Harrington Trail. Here’s where I joined the trail again:

I don’t consider myself a novice hiker, but this trail was not easy, and at times I felt like giving up. But it was a beautiful sunny morning, and the forested landscape was delightful:

I finally made it to the top! I didn’t see a benchmark, but here is a direction marker:

Mount Wachusett is 2006 feet in elevation; it’s considered a glaciated monadnock, meaning an isolated mountain in a relatively flat landscape. This is a multi-use area, as there is a ski lift and trails, weather instruments, and radio towers:

I walked all the way around the summit. Here is one view looking toward the west:

Looking east, you can see Sterling Airport and also Wachusett Reservoir:

I started down the trail around noon, and it took a good 45 minutes to return to where I had parked my car. Tour of wind turbines and mountain hike: What’s not to like!

If you haven’t been hiding under a rock this year, you’re surely aware that 2011 marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the American Civil War. Other than reading a book about Gettysburg for Book Club, I haven’t been involved in any of the commemorative events, so I decided to attend the Remembrance Ceremony at the Brookfield Common this morning. The Brookfield Historical and Cemetery Commissions and the Merrick Public Library sponsored this program which began yesterday evening and continues until 4 pm this afternoon.

At 10 am, the 15th Massachusetts re-enactors mustered at the Civil War monument, the Reverend Eleanor Kraner gave the invocation, then a memorial wreath was prepared for the procession. The soldiers fired their muskets in tribute, then we all walked behind the troops to the Brookfield Cemetery. There, the flag was lowered, and all in attendance who had relatives who served in any war were invited to recite their names (my father, Minoru Ikehara, served in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, European Theater, World War II). The Master of Ceremonies then read the names of Brookfield men who died in the Civil War, and State Senator Stephen Brewer spoke briefly. Reverend Kraner gave the benediction, then the muskets were fired once more in honor of the veterans who fought to preserve the Union.

I was reminded again of the war’s staggering carnage: 600,000 lives lost. The official start and end dates for the War are April 12, 1861 and April 9, 1865, which is almost exactly four years. The program which was prepared for this event lists the names of all Brookfield men who served in the Grand Army of the Republic; I counted 37 who died, which means that every 5 weeks or so, there was a funeral in Brookfield. I remember that many years ago, my local PBS station aired the Ken Burns documentary on the Civil War over the course of a weekend, and I sat for hours in front of my TV and watched every episode. I’m sure the series deserves the awards it garnered, yet I don’t think the filmmaker ever captured the essence of why men fought. Of course there was conscription, and in the beginning, I’m sure there was idealism and perhaps even romanticism, but at the end? It’s hard for me to believe that most Northerners cared one bit for the plight of slaves. Maybe the ideas of “the Union” or of “local control” were more powerful then than I can imagine today.