Snow Hunter--Massachusetts. June 16, 2009--Massachusetts' Jiminy Peak Mountain Resort was the first ski area to erect a wind turbine, one of the largest ever built by a private company, but now a second New England ski resort will construct a big turbine to generate power itself.

The smaller Berkshire East ski area will build a smaller windmill generating 600-kilowatts instead of the 1.5 megawatts generated by Jiminy Peak, producing power to meet a third of its energy needs.

The windmill should be operational by the end of 2009 and has recently been awarded a $400,000 dollar state grant towards the project costs.

James Schaefer, co-owner of Berkshire East and a managing director for the Swiss UBS bank said the decision to invest in wind power was to help future proof the area against rising energy costs, saying that the area's main energy needs were for snowmaking. \