The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) just held a dedication ceremony in order to dedicate (what else?) a new 50-kilowatt wind turbine that wil be erected at the Massachusetts National Cemetery. This is no shorty, as the 120-foot tall structure will tower over the rest of the tombstones, where it is estimated to produce up to 95% of the cemetery’s annual electricity usage – which will actually help edge it closer to being self sufficient (energy wise, anyways, until someone else is able to come up with a solar-powered automatic lawn mower to keep the grass around the graves nicely trimmed all year round).
This is one of VA’s first wind turbine projects, where the Massachusetts National Cemetery will lead the way where renewable energy use is concerned.
The wind turbine project itself received funding via a $553,000 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant, and will play a vital role in VA’s energy conservation initiative since that comprises of renewable energy generation technologies.
We’re stoked and interested to see how well this wind turbine will be adopted in cemetries elsewhere worldwide. Surely this can be one of the pioneering examples that the world can learn from, as keeping a cemetry lighted up could run up a rather hefty power bill at the end of the month, never mind if you’re the Federal Government yourself. [Press Release]
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