HOLYOKE – The former Mount Tom coal power plant site is going green as its owner constructs 17,208 solar panels on 20 acres of the Route 5 property.
Engie North America, formerly GDF Suez, began preliminary work on the solar project this summer. Officials expect construction to be complete in December. The 5.76 megawatt solar farm will sell energy to city-owned Holyoke Gas & Electric, according to Engie spokeswoman Carol Churchill.
Engie North America President Frank Damaille and Holyoke city officials will be among the speakers at a groundbreaking ceremony Oct. 13 at 10:30 a.m., according to Churchill.
The Mount Tom Power Plant was shuttered permanently in 2014 after more than five decades in service. The 146 megawatt coal-burning plant could not complete with cheaper natural gas, Churchill said at the time.
Since then, the Paris-based company has taken a new name to reflect its growing interest in renewable energy. Engie officials say the company is the largest energy producer globally. The North American arm operates several biomass, solar and wind facilities in New England and Canada, Churchill said.
“We’re getting more into renewables,” she said. “We generate nearly 1,000 megawatt in North America from renewable power sources.”
The plant, located on a 128-acre site along the Connecticut River, at its closure employed 28. Once complete, the array will be operated remotely from an Engie biomass facility in Fitchburg by two employees who live in the Holyoke area, according to Churchill.
The power plant in 2009 generated $1.7 million in tax revenue while it was still running. When the plant closed last year, its 28 employees earned $3.9 million in wages and benefits. That year it paid $315,000 in taxes.
This year Engie paid $118,000 in property taxes and expects to pay about $146,000 next year once the array is put online, according to Churchill.
Construction of the array comes after a city-commissioned study on the site’s reuse was released last year, funded by $100,000 in state money.
The study outlined three reuse scenarios, all of which included a photovoltaic array farm. One scenario adds public riverfront access and the third adds riverfront access, greenhouse agriculture and an anaerobic digester to create biogas for electricity generation.
Chris Lindahl can be reached at clindahl@gazettnet.com