In 1941 on a mountain in Vermont, Grandpa's Knob near Castleton, the world's first megawatt-scale wind turbine was connected to the electric grid, generating power for thousands in the Champlain Valley below. This was the Smith-Putnam Wind Turbine which ran on and off between 1941 and 1945. President Franklin Roosevelt’s science advisor, Vannevar Bush, would later write that “the great wind-turbine on a Vermont mountain …proved that at some future time homes may be illuminated and factories may be powered by this new means.”
The story of the Grandpa’s Knob wind turbine is a cautionary tale about just how long and hard it is to get an energy technology to commercial scale and the obstacles that remain for wind to become a significant tool in confronting climate change. In the U.S it took over thirty years for this to be accomplished again. Warren documentary filmmaker Ian Sweet and Dan Reicher, a wind expert and former U.S Assistant Secretary of Energy in the Clinton Administration, joined forces to produce the documentary, Wind Power Vermont Leads the Way. The documentary focuses on how this came about, those involved, how the turbine was developed and built, and its impact on the future of power-producing wind turbines.
The premiere of the documentary takes place at The Big Picture, Waitsfield on Saturday, June 13, at 7 p.m. After the showing, there will be a Q&A session with some of those involved.
