FirstLight Files to Relicense Western Massachusetts Hydroelectric Assets for 50 More Years of Clean, Reliable Energy & Commun...
December 04 2020 - 12:03PM
Business Wire
FirstLight Power today submitted its combined Amended Final
License Application (AFLA) to federal regulators to extend the
operating licenses for 50 years for its Cabot and Turners Falls
hydroelectric generating stations on the Connecticut River and its
Northfield Mountain energy storage facility. These facilities,
which provide clean power and long-duration energy storage, will be
important contributors to Massachusetts’ efforts to achieve its
goal of reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
If approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC),
the new licenses will sustain more than 70 well-paying and
union-represented jobs in Western Massachusetts and hundreds of
millions of dollars in local property tax payments to Erving, Gill,
Montague, and Northfield for another half-century. The new license
also ensures continued generation of clean, renewable, locally
produced hydropower to more than 1 million New England homes and
businesses.
Based on findings from more than 40 detailed scientific studies
and years of environmental reviews, FirstLight is committing to
$130 million worth of new investments in protection, mitigation,
and enhancement (PM&E) measures, foregoing approximately $100
million in energy revenue over the next 50 years by restricting
hours of hydropower generation to protect wildlife and habitat, and
upgrading recreational facilities in the region. These measures
include:
- $5.6 million in investments to improve recreational facilities
on the Connecticut River, including four new access points and boat
launches in Montague and Northfield
- New upstream and downstream fish passage facilities and
protective netting at the Northfield Mountain water intake to
minimize impacts on fish and marine life from operations
- Changes in hydropower operations protocols to improve fish
migration and spawning and to improve general aquatic habitat for a
multitude of plant and animal species
- And ongoing management plans for protecting bald eagles,
long-eared bats, and shortnose sturgeon, maintaining historical
properties, and mitigating the spread of invasive species.
FirstLight CEO Alicia Barton said: “Northfield Mountain and our
Cabot and Turners Falls facilities are delivering a significant
portion of the zero-emissions clean power available to New
England’s electric grid today, and they are poised to play an even
more important role in the decades ahead as Massachusetts scales up
renewable energy to achieve its ambitious goal of net-zero
emissions by 2050. We are proud to be able to strengthen
FirstLight’s longstanding environmental stewardship in the region
and support environmental and species protection, preservation of
clean energy jobs, and investment in the local economy, all while
combating the existential threat of climate change.’’
FirstLight also acknowledged the contributions of the many
stakeholders who provided valuable input into the process of
developing the AFLA, including environmental and recreation
organizations, tribal representatives, historical and cultural
officials, and local, state, and federal agencies. “The engagement
of these stakeholders has been an important part of the development
of this application, and we look forward to continuing to work with
them as the process advances,” said Barton.
The 1,168-megawatt Northfield Mountain pumped-storage facility,
known as “New England’s biggest and greenest battery,” was
originally completed in 1972 and can store enough power to serve 1
million homes for more than 7 hours every day. This makes
Northfield Mountain both a critical resource for ensuring reliable
power and an ideal backstop for large-scale wind and solar power to
reduce regional greenhouse gas emissions. To bolster its value to
the reliability of the New England electric grid and to the
region’s carbon reduction goals, FirstLight is asking FERC to make
permanent the allowed use of existing storage capability at
Northfield Mountain that FERC has granted during seasonal peak
times in the past.
Cabot-Turners Falls is Massachusetts’ largest conventional
hydropower facility and consists of the 62-megawatt Cabot Station,
first put into service in 1916, and 6-megawatt Turners Falls
station just upstream, commissioned in 1905.
As part of its stewardship of the local environment and
approximately 4,000 acres of land in Western Massachusetts
associated with the facilities, FirstLight already provides access
to some of the area’s marquee outdoor recreation sites, including
the Northfield Mountain Recreation and Environmental Center, the
Turners Falls Fishway, Riverview Park, and the Barton Cove and
Munn’s Ferry campgrounds. The new river access points will provide
kayakers, canoers, hikers, and other visitors with even more
options to enjoy the river and its wildlife.
Extensive research for the 700-page AFLA, including analysis by
the nation’s leading riverbank-erosion scientist, confirmed that
FirstLight’s operations affect riverbanks in only two locations,
one of which has already been remediated. In the second location,
research showed, naturally high river flows and boat wakes account
for the vast majority of riverbank impacts, with only 8 percent of
impact attributable to hydroelectric operations by FirstLight. The
study confirmed that the steps FirstLight has completed to date to
mitigate shoreline erosion issues have satisfactorily addressed all
impacts related to hydropower operations.
The full license application and associated public notices for
the AFLA may be found HERE.
ABOUT FIRSTLIGHT POWER
FirstLight Power (FirstLight) is a leading clean power producer
and energy storage company in New England with a portfolio that
includes nearly 1,400 megawatts of pumped-hydro storage, battery
storage, hydroelectric generation, and solar generation—the largest
clean energy generation portfolio in New England today.
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Len Greene, Director of Government Affairs & Communications
Office: 413-659-4426, Cell: 860-795-4310 Peter J. Howe/Denterlein
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