Historic mill is cutting edge

The historic community of Whitinsville in the Blackstone Valley has been on the leading edge of American technology since 1727, when the Mumford River was harnessed for power before the Industrial Age.

The little town south of Worcester had a forge two years later, and in 1809, only 15 years after Samuel Slater developed the new nation's first water-powered cotton mill in Pawtucket, R.I., Whitinsville had one, too.

Now the historic mill complex that started the Whitin family's empire in milling and manufacturing is on the cutting edge again. Work is under way to convert the four-building brick complex into a green site that combats rising oil and gas costs with a combination of solar, geothermal, and hydropower energy.

``This will generate 88 percent of the energy needs on site, and 100 percent of its heating and cooling," said Jonathan Austin of Austin Architects of Cambridge.

Austin's firm is designing an $8.7 million restoration of the former Whitinsville Spinning Ring Co. headquarters in this village of Northbridge. The complex, some of it intact since 1826, has been owned since 1977 by Alternatives Unlimited Inc., a nonprofit that provides jobs, homes, and other assistance to developmentally or psychiatrically challenged residents of Central Massachusetts.

Alternatives tried to sell the site about three years ago. When no buyer materialized, the company's executives decided to stay and to transform the 37,000 square feet of space into an attraction for the local community.

``We thought maybe we could create this community treasure," said Dennis H. Rice, executive director of Alternatives, sitting in a small board room overlooking the river, as a backhoe outside continued construction work that began in June.

``There was an idea this should be a community asset," Austin said.

The complex, set on about an acre that slopes down to the river, will feature a restaurant, performing arts and artists' space, shops, and a large plaza at the water's edge that can host concerts, a farmers' market, or other events.

The exterior of the 1826 Federal-style mill building on the site, which is included in the state historic register, is being restored to its original condition. The interior is being updated to provide three residential apartments for people served by Alternatives. A forge erected in 1886 will be the centerpiece of a museum, with metal working and glass-blowing artisans offering visitors a glimpse of how industry operated in the 19th century.

But the key piece linking the past to the future at Whitinsville will be a modern water turbine.

The use of water power peaked in New England in the 1800s and fell off as electricity became more widely available. It saw a brief resurgence in the 1970s, when energy prices shot up. Now, with oil prices fluctuating, it may get renewed attention.

Most of the river sites that can be used to produce large amounts of electricity for public consumption have been tapped, said Warren Leon, director of the Renewable Energy Trust at the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, which gave Alternatives a $324,000 grant to help redevelop hydropower.

However, ``we could add more modest sites, expand existing ones, and increase total production," Leon said.

Eight feet in diameter, the water turbine that last powered the mill turned shafts that drove gears, pulleys, and belts to power machines upstairs. Initially, the Whitins milled cotton. But later generations devised steel spinning rings for looms and manufactured them for sale to textile companies all over the world.

Instead of turning shafts, a new and more efficient water turbine will churn out 50 kilowatts of electricity with a generator. That power, if not consumed on site, will be sold to the electrical grid to help reduce, if only by a little, the region's need for oil- or coal-generated electricity.

The modern turbine will be installed on the edge of a dam located a short distance from the pit where the old turbine turned. The pond behind the dam will be raised 30 inches from its current level, increasing its potential force for energy production. Alternatives executives hope that the pond will also provide an ice skating rink in the winter .

The Mumford River, a tributary of the Blackstone, is consistent and doesn't have frequent water-level dips, making it ideal for turbines. ``You can pretty much always keep one running," said Philip Ingersoll-Mahoney, Alternatives' director of administration and finance.

Bill Fay of Swift River Co. of Hamilton , a specialist in hydropower, is providing a used water turbine system that can be installed for the nonprofit organization. ``Because of what Alternatives is, I've been trying to limit my time and keep costs as low as possible," he said.

There are other energy sources to be used in the project. Photovoltaic panels on the roof of one of the large buildings will generate about 12,000 kilowatt hours annually, or roughly 5 percent of what Alternatives expects to use.

Heat pumps, which consultant Paul Lyons said are three times as efficient as baseboard or space heaters, will get a boost from the $250,000 geothermal system, circulating water from wells 600 to 1,400 feet in the ground that constantly stays at about 55 degrees.

But it's the hydropower that lends the complex a real advantage. ``They have this fantastic resource, the river," said Lyons, a principal at Zapotec Energy in Cambridge, which conducted an analysis of Alternatives' needs.

Altogether, the solar panels, geothermal wells, and hydropower will cut Alternatives' annual costs for electricity, heating, and air conditioning from an estimated $67,000 to $33,000, Lyons said. That figure includes capital costs of the new energy equipment.

Alternatives asked Lyons to help it get a certificate after completion proving the building is energy-efficient and friendly to the environment, specifically a hard-to-achieve gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating, conferred by the US Green Building Council.

The forge on the site, which originally was fueled by coal and whose wood beams and walls are blackened, will rely on natural gas, the only conventional fuel to be used on site. About the only alternative source the company forgoes is windmills.

``We considered wind," said Austin, ``but this is a valley."

Thomas C. Palmer Jr. can be reached at tpalmer@globe.com.