Energy Fair display

This past weekend the Northeast Kingdom put the green in green mountain state. It was at the second annual Northeast Kingdom energy fair.

Like all fairs this one had rides. Whether it was powering light bulbs on a bicycle, or playing Wii in a solar powered trailer. Paul Metruck of metruck's electrical construction tells about the power of a game console.

"Take it to a grade school they can only stare at an invertors for so long, you show them a TV with a Wii and there like oh yea let's play. It gets the young people thinking they got solar panels its working I'm not connected to the grid and I could play Wii till the morning."

The power of fun was around. But energy isn't just fun and games. The fair was a place where you could learn about power through out America.  Lyndon State College Professor, Ben Luce, explains how we could power the U.S. by solar panels.

People enjoying the Energy Fair

"It would only take about 60 x 60 mile area of collection area. Say in the southwest or spread on rooftops or whatever to replace our conventional electricity sources with solar energy."

Businesses from the northeast kingdom and beyond displayed their products such as, pellet stoves, masonry heaters, and wind turbines. Legislators from Washington attended to show their support. Senator, Bernie Sanders, answered questions about alternate means of energy.

"If we're going to stimulate the economy. If we're going to create jobs if we're going to do more to energy independence these are things we've got to do we need to have more energy efficiency and we have to break our dependence on foreign fossil fuel."

Congressmen, Peter Welch, gave his own perspective on the matter.

"The big opportunity of taking on the challenge of energy independence is that we keep the dollars local."

Over the weekend Senator Sanders and Governor Douglas awarded grants to 147 schools, towns, and cities throughout the state.