The
Future Is Now: Hudson Valley Clean Energy
by
Ross Rice
My
tires scrunch across the driveway at the brand-new warehouse site
for Hudson Valley Clean Energy, just outside of Rhinebeck. It’s
a slightly overcast September morning, and after a series of wrong
turns [despite excellent directions provided], I’ve finally
located the forest-green office building/warehouse not far off of
9G, right near its intersection with Rte. 9. One of the first things
you notice is the shiny blackness of the solar cells on the south-facing
rooftop. Yep, this must be the place . . .
John
Wright steps out the door to greet us. A genial, compact man who
looks like he would be equally at home in a board room as with a
band saw, he adroitly represents both the business and technical
sides of HVCE. Wright saw the light, so to speak, when he assisted
his brother-in-law Jeff Irish in installing a small solar photovoltaic
[electricity-producing] array at his place in 2002. Wright found
himself thinking: “I’d like to have one of these in
my house.” As it turned out, Irish, who after 15 years as
an electrical engineer with GE [and tired of moving every three
years], wanted to settle down, had already realized the potential
of this new industry, and was ready to get into it. “I got
into the solar business because I could see that it could solve
so many problems in the world, and was finally coming down in cost
fast enough to eventually replace fossil fuels and nuclear,”
said Irish. Wright, who had experience working for AOL and Time
Warner on top of his background in construction, made a good fit
to form a new company. “ When we started, people didn’t
know what these systems were, how they worked, IF they worked. Central
Hudson [local utility] wasn’t really familiar with them [Irish’s
system having been only the 10th solar system in the territory],
so now we’ve created a marketplace in the Hudson Valley, generating
a lot of awareness, and making our own environmental movement.”
The timing turned out to be fortuitous, as political winds of change
took a more favorable turn. CONTINUE...
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