My Story
Born and raised in Pittsford Vermont, John was always fascinated with the natural world and thinking about living a sustainable lifestyle. He attended Colorado State University majoring in Forestry where he spent time in the National Parks familiarizing himself with Earth's resources. While at University, John got his pilots license and later worked as an aerial photographer. After college and some fill in work at Killington Ski Area, he enlisted in the Navy where his interest in aviation and electronics led to avionics training at NAS Memphis and NAS Pawtuxant River, and eventually stationed at NAS Rota Spain, working as a Avionics Technician on various Naval navigation and communications systems and continued to fly and ski when he had the time. After his service, Mr. Blittersdorf moved back to Vermont and began his first off-grid project,: his own home on Mt. Nickwackett, just a few miles from where he grew up. For 16 years, he ran the family business in Pittsford doing commercial silk screen printing until he left the company in 1990 to a partner and went to work for his borther David at NRG Systems. David had built his first wind generator to supply power to John's cabin. David also helped John procure his first solar PV panels.
John immersed himself in wind power technology working at NRG Systems in Hinesburg, manufacturing wind measurement equipment and doing some field installation and data collecting. Before leaving NRG in 1999 John had founded Central Vermont Solar & Wind in 1996 and did several installations before Leaving NRG in 1999 to work full time on many grid backup systems projects with a deadline of Y2K. Operating out of several locations in Rutland, his company designed and installed hundreds of residential solar and wind systems, both grid tied and off grid. They won the bid to install a 50 KW solar farm In Rutland as a demonstration of a solar power station feeding directly to the Central Vermont Public Service grid, The installation was unique as it was installed using no fossil fuels, Kevin Bailey an intern discovered at SolarFest and then an employee of CV Solar was the project manager for the solar farm project and after leaving Central Vermont Solar & Wind, Kevin founded High Peaks Solar in Troy, NY Many local installers got their start at CV Solar. John eventually sold his company to Rob Stubbins Electrical Contractors in 2016 where he headed the solar division for a few years. Currently, John owns and operates CV Wind Service/Off Grid Vermont and continues to specialize in off grid and backup solar and wind installations and service.
Today, John's homestead is a completely off grid sheep farm, powered by solar. . Having been involved with SolarFest almost from its beginning in 1996, serving on the board of the non-profit and handling the power needs of the festival, and now as an on the advisory board and SolarFest Historian, he looks forward to working with training new solar installers at the Solarfest Center in Brandon.