Posted by Wayne G. Barber
PROVIDENCE -- Governor Raimondo is set to join the chief executive of a Chicago-based energy company at an event Tuesday to announce its proposal to build a $700-million gas-fired power plant in Burrillville. The project under development by Invenergy, a firm that has built generation facilities across North America and Europe, is called the Clear River Energy Center.“The project will add more than 900 megawatts of clean, homegrown electricity to New England’s grid, which is in need of new, cleaner, and more reliable energy sources as the region faces the retirement of aging power plants in the coming years,” an advisory on the Tuesday event said
Invenergy says it will hire more than 300 local workers to build the power plant. It says the facility would also pay millions of dollars in taxes to Burrillville each year. At 900 megawatts, the power plant would be significantly larger than other energy facilities in Rhode Island, including other gas-fired generators. In comparison, the offshore wind farm being built off Block Island by Providence-based Deepwater Wind would be 30 megawatts. The proposal comes at a time when a host of older power plants in New England are closing. The Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station shut down last December. The Brayton Point Power Station, the largest coal-burning generator in New England, is set to cease operations in 2017.But it also comes as New England struggles with constraints on the pipelines that bring natural gas to the region. The capacity problems have been caused by an increasing dependence on gas for power generation as dirtier and more costly coal- and oil-fired facilities have been phased out.Also appearing at the event at 10 a.m. in the State House with the governor and Michael Polsky, CEO of Invenergy will be Michael Sabitoni, president of the Rhode Island Building and Construction Trades Council.Source: Alex Kuffner PRO-JO Media Press Release
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