Clean & Green: Electric Power Rules!

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Credit Image composite by Dave Lucas with help from WikiPedia

An early 20th Century electric car and its modern counterpart.

Electric technology has come full circle in two different ways affecting two upstate communities.

A power generation station in Columbia County that dates back to the 19th century has been restored to service. The Stuyvesant Hydro Electric Station came back online in December providing power to National Grid, albeit on a temporary basis. The facility is nearly completely rehabilitated.

Stuyvesant Town Supervisor Ron Knott says the station was built in 1899 and originally powered a trolley line that ran between Hudson and Albany.

The plant was taken offline in 1994. It since has been retrofitted with 21st century technology by Albany Engineering, which has owned it since 2008. Company President Jim Besha says don't be surprised if you see more small-scale clean, green electric plants come online.

Electric cars were popular during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and came back in vogue during the late 1990s, finding a spot in the marketplace as gasoline/electric hybrids. In the last year, fully-electric cars fianlly made a comeback in a vehicle commercially produced by Nissan.

Windham Mountain has just unveiled an electric vehicle charging station for its guests and staff... spokesperson Beth Barry says its the first resort in New York State to offer the green amenity.

Windham  partnered with NYSERDA to become a ChargePoint location. Barry says the resort invested $60,000 in green initiative improvements over the last year in its commitment to environmental sustainability, cutting its energy usage by nearly 40%.