Stories
Renewable energy projects have been growing across New England in recent years. And while offshore wind and grid-scale solar have gotten lots of the attention — a smaller, more community-oriented way of getting power has been steadily taking hold: “shared clean energy.”
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We’re going to take you on a journey. It starts in frigid Québec, where a gigantic, decades-old project that dammed rivers and forced native people off their land and has become a source of provincial pride, and a lot of power. Power-hungry Massachusetts saw Hydro-Québec’s big dams as a zero-carbon answer to their prayers.
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Two grand hotels on historic Main Street of Willimantic, Connecticut, hosted movers and shakers from New York and Boston during the golden age of train travel. The hotels fell into disrepair when travelers took to the highways. Cheap rooms, cheap heroin and social services drew addicts, sex workers and the unemployed. A plan to demolish the buildings may force the town to reconcile its grand history and troubled past.
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Gabby Queenan stands on a small lookout point by the Charles River. Behind her, a few joggers brave the cold and cars whiz by on Memorial Drive. She points out the Harvard University athletic fields across the water and the University Boathouse a few hundred yards downriver.
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As Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant stopped production in Vernon, Vermont, and as Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, Massachusetts moves to close later this year, what is the future of nuclear power in our region? Soon New England will only have Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant operating in New Hampshire and Millstone Nuclear Power Plant operating in Connecticut, so what does this mean for our energy mix and for ratepayers in our region?
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The promise of modern communications has bypassed many people and many rural communities in Vermont. And once again, the Legislature and the governor are promising to do more to deliver broadband to underserved areas.
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It was 1983. Toll booths in Connecticut had already experienced decades of problems like accidents and traffic jams.
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A Vermont Department of Public Service employee drove more than 6,000 miles around the state this fall to test the adequacy of wireless coverage. What he found is now part of a detailed challenge before the Federal Communications Commission that officials hope will bring federal dollars into the state to improve the wireless network.
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In some parts of New England, towns are committing to transition to 100 percent renewable energy. Burlington, Vermont was the first city in the United States to get 100 percent of its energy from renewable sources. Others are following suit, including Hanover, New Hampshire. And there’s a useful tool for places looking to make the transition. “The Solutions Project” has a “vision” for each state in the country for what a switch to 100 percent renewables could look like.
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The Great Molasses Flood of 1919 is the stuff of legends. It started with a hiss, a boom and a low rumble that eyewitnesses likened to an earthquake. Then a 15-foot wave tore through the streets at 35 miles per hour, on Jan. 15.
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