Dartmouth Grad Brings Green Energy to the Eiffel Tower

Jan Gromadzki ’10, Th’11, helped bring green energy to the Eiffel Tower, one of the most recognizable and most visited sites on the planet. As the project manager for New York-based renewable energy company UGE, Gromadzki has just completed the installation of two wind turbines 400 feet above ground on the Paris landmark.

The Eiffel Tower’s newly installed vertical wind turbines, 400 feet above ground level, offset the Tower’s energy use without visual distraction. (Photo by Jan Gromadzki)

“The project is definitely a high point in my career,” he says, pun intended. “This is not something I could have ever imagined doing growing up, or thought possible even a few years back. It was an incredible experience, and I’m extraordinarily lucky and thankful to have been able to make it happen.” ...

... Gromadzki came to the UGE and the Eiffel Tower project with a well-developed commitment to renewable energy that goes back to his Dartmouth days. He was an engineering science major in the Class of 2010 and then did a fifth year at the Thayer School of Engineering, graduating in 2011 with a bachelor of engineering degree.

“I absolutely loved my Thayer experience, especially my fifth year, when I was able to take a lot of the classes I didn’t have the chance to during my first four years,” he says. “My love for renewable energy was sparked during my ENGS 89/90 capstone project experience, where I was part of a team that designed a new mounting system for flush-mounted rooftop solar panels.”

UGE’s ethos, exemplified by the Paris project, provided Gromadzki with the means to continue his love affair with green energy. “The work on the tower itself posed numerous challenges, but as an engineer, I’m all about the challenge,” he says.