- Board Member
- Board, Speakers
- http://www.allearthrenewables.com/
David Blittersdorf is an entrepreneur and trained engineer with more than three decades of experience in the renewable energy industry, seeking to help prepare humanity for future energy constraints. Growing up in southern Vermont within hiking distance of the site of the world’s first utility-scale wind turbine, David became fascinated with wind and solar energy at an early age, built wind-powered devices to help operate his maple sugarhouse, and was inspired by the Carter administration’s 1979 installation of solar panels on the roof of the White House. This early interest has sustained a career building successful renewable energy companies based on innovative and reliable products, with a focus on lean manufacturing and a “triple bottom line” of responsibility to people, profits and the planet.
David received an associate’s degree in Mechanical Design Engineering Technology from the Wentworth Institute of Technology in 1977, and earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Vermont in 1981. The following year, he founded NRG Systems (since renamed Renewable NRG Systems), and over the next 23 years developed the business into a global leader in wind measurement technology. He stepped down as CEO of NRG Systems in 2004 to establish AllEarth Renewables, which designs and manufactures grid-tied solar PV tracking systems for residential, commercial and utility-scale applications across the U.S., via a network of trained dealer-installers. Within the past five years, David has led three separate partnerships in building two utility-scale solar farms, as well as a 10 MW, four-turbine wind farm that helps power the city of Burlington, VT.
In addition to running AllEarth Renewables as the company’s founder and President/CEO, David volunteers his time to organizations connected with renewable energy, energy education, and preparing for a post-peak-oil world. He served as treasurer of the American Wind Energy Association for 16 years until the spring of 2010, and subsequently was a founding member and treasurer of the Distributed Wind Energy Association. He is a board member for both the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas—USA and Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility, and is a current board member, founding member and past chair of Renewable Energy Vermont. David chairs the board of advisors for the University of Vermont’s Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, and is also on the board of advisors for the Union of Concerned Scientists.
In 2014, he received an honorary doctorate of Engineering Technology from the Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston.
