John Blittersdorf, owner of Central Vermont Solar & Wind in Rutland, Vermont, will once again be assisting in the setup of all the solar equipment to run SolarFest 2011, New England's Renewable Energy Fair. July 15-17. www.solarfest.org

Each y

ear, the Forget-Me-Not Farm in Tinmouth, VT (20 minutes from Rutland), Hosts the annual SolarFest, New England's Renewable Energy Fair. To prepare for powering the large event completely with renewable energy, the site is the venue for a 5 day pre-festival hands on renewable energy installation workshop. Only 20 students are accepted into this advanced PV workshop where the participants will be allowed hands on training in the installation of all types of solar systems from small stand alone lighting applications to the largest battery based grid tie solar system in Vermont. The main power system to power the stage lighting and sound and the arena, includes 6 Outback off grid inverters and 2 Outback grid tie inverters. Numerous solar arrays provide power to a 100kw battery bank. Also included in the installation will be a 5 kw direct grid tie system, a wind turbine, augmenting the SolarRoller, the festivals portable power station, and many stand alone systems powering the numerous workshop tents. Central Vermont Solar and Wind is proud to be a sponsor of SolarFest and invites all to join us at the primier Solar Festival in the Northeast. Gates open on Friday July 15 at 10am and the festival runs through the weekend. See www.solarfest.org for more information.