Blittersdorf is president and chief executive officer of AllEarth Renewables in Williston, which designed and built the trackers that now stand in South Burlington at the end of Dubois Drive.
"I told you I'd get tough things done if you elected me governor," Shumlin quipped as he pressed the button Wednesday afternoon.
After a delay of a few seconds, a flattened 20-by-22-foot panel began to turn on its tower with the click and whir of a small electric motor, then tilted slowly downward, stopping when it squarely faced the sun in the western sky. A crowd of more than 75 supporters, contractors who worked on the project and state officials applauded as the last tracker in the 25-acre meadow locked into place.
