Bhimashankar Venkata Nitta was a brilliant, unique man who was passionately devoted to bringing clean energy to Vermont, the Berkshires and beyond. He died suddenly on August 6, 2020 at 9 a.m. at the Albany Medical Center after being in a coma for two days following a cardiac arrest. He was 54 years old.

Bhima, son of the late Dr. Krishna and Sita Kunapuli, was born on October 12,1965, in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India. Bhima was top of his university undergraduate programming, winning five gold medals for excellence before emigrating to the US to earn a Ph.D in chemical engineering from RPI, where he was in the top 1 percent of his class. He later obtained a Certificate in Systems Engineering from MIT. He was employed by GE early in his career, then spent several years with BOC Gases, where he won awards for innovation. At United Technologies, he won patents for his designs in fuel cell and clean energy technologies.

Deeply concerned about the environment, he walked away from Corporate America and, after serving for seven years as an energy consultant at Efficiency Vermont, he launched his business Power Guru LLC, a highly respected and community-orientated solar company that also partnered with Tesla to install power walls.

Bhima worked tirelessly, patiently and passionately to help his customers and community to gain energy independence and to promote clean, sustainable power for everything from a tiny house mobile food cart to large scale community solar projects and beyond. His excellent and devoted team at Power Guru will continue on with Bhima’s mission.

He was a SCC certified racer for many years. He was a passionate cricket player, and started the RPI cricket club. He was also extremely well read, and loved Shakespeare as much as he loved Monty Python.

Bhima is survived by his beloved partner, the writer Alison Larkin of Stockbridge, Mass., whom he was planning to marry; his beloved mother, Sita Nitta of Vizag, India; his beloved brother Surya Nitta of Tampa, Fla.and his wife and children; his beloved brother Satya Nitta of Westchester, N.Y.; and his wife and children; his beloved sister Sita Kanugo of Thousand Oaks, Calif. and her husband and children; many aunts, uncles, cousins, and his independent but devoted cat Willow who ruled his house.

There will be a celebration of Bhima’s life once it is safe to be together.

Meanwhile, in lieu of flowers, please consider adopting some of these changes if you haven’t already.

1. Recycle
2. Get an electric car or a hybrid instead of the one you’re driving now
3. Move over to renewable energy i.e. solar. You’ll save a lot of money and the environment at the same time
4. Be especially kind to cats
5. Respect scientists
6. Consider becoming a vegetarian
7.  Protect the natural environment in every way possible
8.  Fight hard against ignorance and greed
9.  When you walk in nature, take time to really look at the birds and the trees and the tiny insects and animals around you
10. No matter how busy you are, make time in your day to exercise, look after yourself and connect with the people you love.

In lieu of flowers, please make contributions in Bhima’s memory to the Second Chance Animal Shelter, 1779 VT 7A, Arlington, VT 05250 or the Vermont Arts Exchange, 48 Main Street, North Bennington, VT 05257.