The Mount Tom Station was a
coal-fired power plant
A coal-fired power station or coal power plant is a thermal power station which burns coal to generate electricity. Worldwide, there are about 8,500 coal-fired power stations totaling over 2,000 gigawatts capacity. They generate about a th ...
located in
Holyoke, Massachusetts
Holyoke is a city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, that lies between the western bank of the Connecticut River and the Mount Tom Range. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 38,238. Located north of Springfield ...
. It was the last coal-fired plant in
Western Massachusetts
Western Massachusetts, known colloquially as “Western Mass,” is a region in Massachusetts, one of the six U.S. states that make up the New England region of the United States. Western Massachusetts has diverse topography; 22 colleges and u ...
before its closure in December 2014.
History
The plant was opened in 1960, and was briefly converted to run on oil for ten years after 1970, before returning to burning coal.
Starting in 2009, it no longer became profitable to run the station except in times of high demand due to the
natural gas boom in the United States. The boom has resulted in the price of coal growing relative to the price of
natural gas
Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...
which makes coal generation less competitive.
In 2014,
GDF SUEZ Energy North America, the owner of the plant (via
FirstLight Power Resources), announced that they would be closing the plant later that year citing economic concerns.
The town of Holyoke plans to clean up and re-purpose the site in the future.
In October 2016 ground was broken at the site for the construction of a new solar farm.
See also
*
List of power stations in Massachusetts
This is a list of electricity-generating power stations in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, sortable by type and name. In 2021, Massachusetts had a total summer capacity of 13,002 MW through all of its power plants, and a net generation of 1 ...
References
External
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Buildings and structures in Holyoke, Massachusetts
Coal-fired power stations in Massachusetts
Former coal-fired power stations in the United States
Former power stations in Massachusetts