NRG Envisions Montville Renewable Energy Park

Montville leaders and NRG Energy Inc. are looking to make a local power station a model of renewable energy, and hoping the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection will support this vision.

Before a visual conception of the “Renew Montville Renewable Energy Park,” officials discussed plans to convert a unit at the 500-megawatt station to biomass. In addition, the energy park would include a pair of fuel cell generators to produce 5.6 megawatts of energy and a photovoltaic solar panel farm capable of producing 2.3 megawatts.

“We believe that this energy park would be a showcase for renewable energy in Connecticut,” said Jon Baylor, senior director of development at NRG.

Baylor said the proposal was submitted to DEEP on Monday. The department will reply within two weeks, and Mayor Ron McDaniel said construction could begin immediately if a permit is awarded.

“We in the greater Montville community are in strong support of this project for the many benefits it will provide to Connecticut, among them a clean and renewable source of energy for our residents, significant jobs both in the construction and operational phases of the project, economic benefits to the community from hosting this significant business, and property tax revenues to the Montville community, which will help replace those that have been lost in recent years,” said McDaniel.

Montville lost $1.2 million in tax revenue and 34 jobs with the closing of AES Thames, another power station. Baylor said NRG officials determined that repowering the station was the best option for the Montville site.

The biomass portion of the proposal seeks to convert Unit 5, an 82-megawatt oil and natural gas fueled steam unit built in the 1950s, to use clean wood biomass from local forestry and timber companies. The biomass would produce 42 megawatts of energy, and Baylor said the unit would still be able to produce 82 megawatts during high demand periods.

Baylor said more than 300 construction jobs would be created as a result of the project, and more than 200 long-term jobs would be created at the plant, in servicing the energy park components, and in the forestry and timber business.

State Senator Cathy Osten praised the proposal as having the potential to boost employment in the region.

“We consider it vital to eastern Connecticut to bring good-paying living wage jobs, green jobs, into eastern Connecticut,” she said.

Ben Toby, vice president of eastern region and international sales at the Danbury and Torrington based company FuelCell Energy, said the solar panels would perform at 65 percent efficiency. He said this represents more than twice the efficiency and half the carbon emissions of a typical fossil fuel power plant.

“Our plants are well-behaved and make great neighbors,” he said. “They’re safe, stable, quiet, and clean.”

State Rep. Tim Bowles, former chair of the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund, said he considers the proposal to be environmentally sound.

“There has always been some controversy about some kinds of biomass projects, but this one in particular I think the prospect of it using clean, residual wood products from the surrounding area I think is a tremendous idea,” he said. “I think they’ve done a lot of research on this. I really want to commend NRG on this biomass project here.”

Baylor said the total cost of the park will be more than $100 million, with the cost to be borne by NRG and its financiers.