Recent Articles from Ralph Berrier Jr.
A second act for Roanoke’s Walker Machine and Foundry
Standing within hollering distance of the Roanoke River, Gregory Kaknes points toward an empty, 10,000-square-foot building. “That’s the bar and grill,” he says. He turns the other direction and motions toward a large expanse of land covered in concrete. “The apartments are over there. … There’s where we’ll have outdoor music, pickleball courts, beach volleyball.” [&hel[...]
Va.’s first onshore wind farm sells power to Google
Even as political winds shift in Washington, D.C., a long-delayed onshore wind farm in Botetourt County might finally be sailing to completion. Charlottesville-based Apex Clean Energy announced in December 2024 that it has reached a deal for Google to purchase the full capacity of Rocky Forge Wind, a wind farm the Charlottesville company has been […]
Big tech company to buy power from Va.’s first onshore wind farm
Even as political winds shift in Washington, D.C., a long-delayed onshore wind farm in Botetourt County might finally be sailing to completion. Charlottesville-based Apex Clean Energy announced Wednesday that it has reached a deal for Google to purchase the full capacity of Rocky Forge Wind, a wind farm the Charlottesville company has been working to […]
Coming to town
People who attended the annual Virginia Fire Rescue Conference in February could buy the latest rescue equipment, tools, turnout gear, radios, oxygen tanks — even a 30,000-pound pumper fire truck. “If you’ve got your checkbook … you can drive that truck home,” says Christian Eudailey, executive director of the Virginia Fire Chiefs Association, which organizes […]
VCEDA seed grants sow small business growth
Adam Patterson knew if his fashion design company was going to thrive in his hometown of Big Stone Gap, he needed capital — and a new sewing machine. “Mine was so old, it sewed crooked stitches,” says Patterson, founder of Jones-Hurst Designs. Patterson received a $10,000 grant in September from a Virginia Coalfield Economic Development […]
In the pipeline
As Andre Marshall was speaking to a reporter about cybersecurity in late July, one of the biggest technology failures in recent memory was unfolding in real time. A worldwide Microsoft Windows outage on July 19 brought airports, banks, subways — and even the Marshall household — to a standstill. George Mason University‘s vice president for […]
Broadband aid
A couple of Holstein cows poke their heads through the metal gates of the barn as Mark Sowers fiddles with one of his most important pieces of farm equipment — a smartphone. Sowers opens an app on his phone that gives him real-time information from the nearly 300 milking cows that roam Huckleberry Dairy, the […]