Great Rock Windpower

About Great Rock Windpower

Great Rock Windpower’s mission is to advocate for small scale wind power by installing safe, cost effective and reliable small wind energy systems on Martha’s Vineyard and Southeastern Massachusetts.

Kathryn Harcourt - Gary Harcourt - Larry Schubert

Great Rock Windpower, LLC is a worker owned and operated small wind energy consulting and installation business serving the island of Martha’s Vineyard. Great Rock Windpower’s co-owners are recognized as community leaders in both wind power and solar PV. With over fifty years of combined experience as successful small business owners we are able to draw from a broad background in general contracting, construction, information management, and office administration.

Our team has properly permitted and installed ten residential turbines on Martha's Vineyard. Gary is the most experienced Endurance installer in North America having installed turbines in Vermont, Montana, New York, Iowa, Utah, Wisconsin, Saskatchewan and Alberta. We have the experience, skill and knowledge to help you get the right turbine, installed properly and safely on your site.

History

Great Rock Windpower evolved not only from Gary Harcourt's interest and enthusiasm for wind power and alternative energy, but also as a tribute to his brother Glen who left Martha's Vineyard in 1992 for Telluride, Colorado. Glen built a home and woodworking shop on a cliff overlooking the San Miguel River that eventually expanded over the years into Steeprock Builders an energy and resource conscious design build company. Because of the steepness and length of the access road (which required four-wheel drive even in the summer) the cost of bringing utility lines to the site was prohibitive. Glen learned quickly about alternative power sources and living off the grid. His shop office and home were powered by solar panels and a very small wind turbine. It was then that Glen became a serious advocate for clean power and began building homes for others off the grid.

Gary and Glen had been discussing small wind turbines and plans for the installation of a wind turbine on Martha's Vineyard for some time before Glen died tragically in February 2006 along with two young friends and co-workers, leaving behind his wife Isabel and two very young sons Thorne and Weston.

After Glen's death Gary decided that a fitting memorial would be to install the wind turbine the brothers had planned to install together at his home and cabinet shop here in Oak Bluffs and carry on Glen's passion for creating a cleaner better world. Against the Grain (Gary's cabinetmaking company) with the help and encouragement of Kate Warner and his wife Kathryn, hosted a four-day Wind Turbine installation workshop led by Roy Butler of Four Winds Renewable Energy and sponsored by the Vineyard Energy project in October 2006. Against the Grain’s ARE110 2.5 kw wind turbine sparked a flurry of interest in small home-based wind power.

Gary traveled to the cape , Western Mass, Upstate New York, Wisconsin and even Utah to help install small wind turbines, attend conferences and network with other wind power experts around the country. We are spreading the word to homeowners, farmers, and small businesses about the potential of wind power here on Martha’s Vineyard.

The turbine you see in the photo below has since been replaced with an Endurance S250 a wind system which we think is a great leap forward for small wind energy. See the photos page for a slide show of that turbine.

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