Environmentalists call for reinventing Brayton Point

SOMERSET – The coal-fired Brayton Point Power Station has drawn the ire of environmentalists for decades. Now, as it nears its last days, there is an effort to transform the utility into a renewable-energy oasis.

“Reimagining Brayton Point,” a report by a Cambridge, Mass.-based economics firm and endorsed by three Massachusetts-based environmental groups, envisions changing the 53-year-old facility into a renewable-energy hub and public park, according to a report by ecoRI News. Gone are the smokestacks; in their place are solar arrays, a food-scrap digester and a shipping port that serves offshore wind farms.

The hope is that the concept will deter a possible conversion into a new natural gas power plant.

Renewable-energy advocates commissioned the 35-page study by Synapse Energy Economics Inc. According to the report, the existing high-voltage transmission infrastructure at Brayton Point can be upgraded to deliver wind energy to the grid. Its estimated $20 million cost is significantly less than the $1.3 billion to convert it to a large-scale natural gas plant, according to the report. •

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