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!