Western Massachusetts Electric Co. hopes to build a $12 million, 2.2-megawatt solar facility.
Carl J. Frattini, of Western Massachusetts Electric Co., explains plans for a $12 million, 2.2-megawatt solar facility in Springfield to members of the Indian Orchard Citizens Council at the American Legion Hall on Wednesday night.SPRINGFIELD – City and utility officials Wednesday touted plans for a $12 million project to turn the formerly contaminated Chapman Valve complex on Goodwin Street into a 2.2-megawatt solar facility.
They spoke before the Indian Orchard Citizens Council in an effort to acquaint members with Western Massachusetts Electric Co.’s plans to reuse the former brownfield site that had been contaminated with radiation.
The project, to be called S.S. Goodwin Street, and formally 225 Goodwin St., will generate enough electricity to power 350 to 400 homes, according to Carl J. Frattini, the electric company’s director of business development. He addressed about 20 residents who had gathered at the American Legion Hall on Oak Street.
“It is an investment in your community. We want to be good neighbors,” Frattini said.
The project should generate about $400,000 a year in property taxes for the city, he said. It will consist of a grid of solar panels 6½ feet off the ground tilted south. It will be secured with fences and not involve any high-voltage power lines.
The energy produced at the facility will be fed into Northeast Utilities’ power grid.
View full sizeThis is a drawing of the proposed Indian Orchard solar facility at the Chapman Valve site on Goodwin Street.The site is properly zoned for the use. Only a site plan review is needed from the city.
Harry Seitan, of Wilbraham, a representative from St. Gregory’s Armenian Church nearby, asked if consumers in the area will get a break on rates.
“There is nothing localized about this,” Frattini said.
It will not result in lower rates for the neighborhood, but by the same token the cost of the project will be spread out among the utility’s 210,000 customers, the utility executive said.
The nearly 13-acre site is owned by the Springfield Redevelopment Authority. Negotiations are taking place to either sell or lease the property to the utility, according to John Judge, the city’s chief development officer.
He said officials hope the project will be the first of three such ventures in Springfield. He touted the project as a green enterprise that will have minimal impact on the neighborhood. Judge declined to say what other sites are under consideration.
Susan M. Soto, president of the Indian Orchard Citizens Council, was sold on the idea.
“I think it will be good for the community. It is new and it is green,” she said.
Soto expressed hope the complex would draw other green businesses as the utility’s solar facility in Pittsfield has done.
The former foundry site recently was the subject of 18 months of environmental remediation using funds from the state Department of Environmental Protection and MassDevelopment.
A year ago the city demolished the main foundry on Goodwin Street. Chapman Valve was once the world’s largest manufacturer of valves and employed 3,500 people. The facility milled uranium in the late 1940s, but tests have shown the site is now free of radiation.
Solar projects are cropping up throughout Western Massachusetts, with several communities considering the placement of panels on former landfills. In Holyoke, the Gas and Electric Department plans to generate 4.5 megawatts of power on two sites in the city.