Green Mountain Club goes 100 percent renewable

The Green Mountain Club today unveiled a first-in-the-state, wood-burning heat and hot water system. This small-scale, exterior system is part of the club’s new 100 percent on-site renewable energy portfolio for its Waterbury Center campus.
‘As the stewards of the Long Trail, its important that the Green Mountain Club walks the walk in promoting efficiency and small-scale renewable energy,’ said Will Wiquist, executive director of the club. ‘We must take responsibility for our own impacts on the environment if we are going to expect others to help protect Vermont’s hiking trails and the mountains and forests they cross.’
With a $67,000 grant secured by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and administered by the Vermont Department of Forest, Parks and Recreation, the Green Mountain Club has installed an innovative exterior wood gasification boiler on its seasonal staff building. This prefabricated boiler system provides a clean and renewable source of heat and hot water for a facility which is not large enough to house an interior boiler system like the club uses for its main visitor center and headquarters nearby.
Sen. Leahy said, ‘The Green Mountain Club is a Vermont original that has reached a chronological and service milestone. I was pleased to be able to help showcase these renewable energy systems at the Club’s high-profile campus on Route 100.’
The club also showed off four new solar trackers to go with its three previously-installed trackers and a rooftop array. Along with the energy efficiency decisions incorporated into the building of its 2-year old headquarters, the club is now net-neutral and expects to produce more than it consumes.
David Blittersdorf, CEO of AllEarth Renewables, said, ‘"The Green Mountain Club has smartly taken control of their energy future. By investing in their energy needs now, this Vermont institution is both doing the right thing for our environment and protecting their financial bottom line. Both are vital for their organization's future. We are proud of the schools, towns and non-profits that took advantage of our financing option. It's was great example of public/private cooperation."
AllEarth helped make the club’s solar power systems affordable for a non-profit with its innovative Power Purchase Agreement. This arrangement allows businesses, organizations, and homeowners to lease the All Sun Tracker system for a small down payment and small monthly lease payments.
To fuel its two gasification boilers, the club primarily relies upon sustainably harvested wood from club-owned land at the base of Belvidere Mountain in Lowell, Vt. In order to maximize its use of the heat and hot water, the club stores hot water in large tanks which it can later tap into for heat and hot water ‘ essentially serving as batteries.
Bob DeGeus, wood utilization forester for the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation, said, ‘What GMC has done is significant. They have an integrated energy system that includes building thermal efficiency, wood combustion equipment that is based on their own fuel supply, combustion technology that is modern and efficient, and the solar-electric array. I'd say this puts GMC in with NRG as providing a real life example of how to address energy use in a systems-based way. Towns and commercial and industrial property owners can gain a close, operation look at the GMC system as part of a process of learning about options.’
The club is also installing a clothes dryer for its season field staff ‘ summit caretakers and trail workers ‘ which uses the heat from the wood boiler instead of propane to help clean the dirt off the cloths of the kids that keep the Long Trail in good shape.
Another notable feature of the GMC campus is its composting toilets. Use of this technology in an office building and visitor center embodies in a workplace the same ‘Leave No Trace’ ethic that the club highlights on the trail.
To watch a video tour of the GMC campus renewable energy portfolio, click here.
WATERBURY CENTER, Vt., November 17 ‘