Yestermorrow goes solar

After years of dreaming about how we could produce more of our own energy, we're thrilled to be implementing two major renewable energy projects on the Yestermorrow campus.

In September we learned we'd been awarded one of the Vermont Community Climate Change Grants to install a solar hot water system for our domestic hot water use (kitchen, showers, etc). We've received $11,850 from the state for this project, and are partnering with GroSolar to design the system which we hope to install in the next couple of months. It will include 6 flat plate collectors mounted on the east side of the roof of the main building and a couple hundred gallons of super insulated storage tanks in the basement. In addition to lessening our fossil fuel consumption (we currently use propane to heat our hot water), we are also hoping this project will provide an educational demonstration site for people interested in learning more about solar hot water systems. We'll have informative signage on all the equipment and will run a solar hot water workshop in conjunction with the installation, so stay tuned for more details on that learning opportunity.

On Friday we also signed an agreement with Earth Turbines in Williston, VT to install a 32kW photovoltaic array at Yestermorrow. This installation through their All Sun Trackers lease program allows us to purchase the solar energy produced by the PV panels through net metering via a 5-year lease. The 32kW installation is expected to generate close to 45,000 kWh of electricity per year- enough to cover Yestermorrow's annual electricity consumption for the entire campus. The panels are what's known as "solar trackers"- ground mounted panels which move with the sun across the sky to maximize the amount of energy they create. We're currently in the process of finalizing the tracker locations, permitting and obtaining a certificate of public good from the state of VT, but if all goes well we'll have the panels installed by the end of the year.

We'll be documenting both projects extensively and posting photos to the blog as we move forward.

"Less is More" Instructor Featured in Dwell Magazine

"Less is More" instructor, Andreas Stavropoulos recently featured in Dwell Magazine.

RE:Shade - October 9th, 5:30p

Instructor and friend Dee Nicholas will be showing her installation RE:Shade at UPenn in the Philly Works exhibit. Please join her for the open house this Friday October 9th, from 5:30p - 11p at Meyerson Hall (34th & Spruce in Philadelphia).

Part of the genesis of this project was an installation at Yestermorrow last summer, using this found materials-based process as part of the work.

For more on the work visit her website: http://reshadow.blogspot.com

Yestermorrow Featured in New York Times "T Magazine" design issue

We were thrilled to host journalist Mark Rozzo back in July for a few days on campus, and he wrote a great article about Yestermorrow for the New York Times T Magazine. The issue is finally hitting newsstands this weekend (Sunday 10/4 issue), but if you want a sneak preview, the article "Hammer Time" is online--http://www.nytimes.com/indexes/2009/10/04/style/t/index.html#pageName=04yestermorrow

Moose Sighting!

Dave Warren, our facilities manager, took some sweet shots of a moose near the intern chalet.

The big fella walked right up to him...

...and then went casually on his way.

A Day in the Life of Yestermorrow

We were lucky to have local photographer Spencer Leonard of Warren come by last week to capture some of our classes in action and campus during fall foliage. Check out these wonderful shots!

Nina Dubois: LAND/ART 2009

Thank you to Yestermorrow alumna Nina Dubois for sharing photos of her most recent site project at the University of New Mexico Art Museum. Dispersal/Return: Land Arts of the American West 2000–2006 is an open exhibit that runs from August 28 – November 25, 2009 and has commissioned Nina for her piece, in collaboration with Jeanette Hart-Mann, entitled Culture Digest(e). The piece is a site-specific art laboratory that explores the waste stream of the University of New Mexico campus and its potential to be creatively diverted and reimagined. Designed as a passive solar greenhouse, the project functions as a repository where cultural artifacts such as office memos, newspapers, food waste, and landscape debris are collected and photographed. For more images of this project visit her album: http://tiny.cc/VXtY8