http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20110701/NEWS02/707019916
Published July 1, 2011 in the Rutland Herald
Winstanley seeks biomass facility
By SUSAN SMALLHEER
NORTH SPRINGFIELD — The proposed 25-megawatt woodchip power plant in the North Springfield industrial park — and a new, low-cost steam heat district — is back on the front burner.
Winstanley Enterprises, the owner of the Fellows building, announced Thursday that it would be filing a request for a certificate of public good from the Vermont Public Service Board this fall to build a 25-to 35-megawatt baseload woodchip burning power plant.
The project had been put on hold more two years ago, but a change in administration in Montpelier was a key factor in its revitalization, said Chauncey “Chad” Morgan, project manager for Winstanley.
“Adam has never stopped working on this project,” Morgan said, referring to Adam Winstanley, the head of the company, which is based in Concord, Mass.
Morgan said he had spent the last six months working with state officials on the project, which is planned to include an innovative low-cost steam heat district in the industrial park.
Morgan said that the project was not dependent on any state or federal tax credits or grants, but that the company would obviously like to take advantage of such incentives.
“The approach of Winstanley is not to rush things and to do them deliberately,” said Morgan. “We are not predicating this project to receive the grants in the current tax bill.”
Morgan said that the project would represent a $130 to $180 million investment and would create 256 construction jobs for two years, and 100 ongoing jobs, not counting any associated increase in employment in the industrial park.
Springfield Town Manager Robert Forguites said the town had been told by Winstanley earlier this week that it was going forward with the plan, which it had first announced in 2009 at a gala press conference.
“It was on hold indefinitely, but they are now looking at it in a different way,” said Forguites.
He said the town would obviously need more detail about the project, in particular the amount of truck traffic in the vicinity of the industrial park, which is on the edge of a residential area of Springfield.
But Forguites said the plan to generate steam and hot water, and running it through the industrial park and offering it to existing and future tenants was an interesting development.
“Road issues will have to be looked at,” he said. ‘It’s pretty preliminary right now.”
Bob Flint, executive director of the Springfield Regional Development Corp., has worked closely with the Winstanleys on a number of projects.
“This is a major commitment from Winstanley Enterprises. This is a tangible step toward making this reality,” he said.
Flint called the project a potential “a game changer” to the local economy.
“It takes an old-school industrial park, between the IVEK solar project and the thermal loop, and creates a prime site for commercial development and leading-edge alternative energy,” said Flint.
IVEK, another firm in the industrial park, installed one of the state’s largest solar installations last year, and generates most of its power.
“It’s fascinating,” said Flint.
While Flint said “there’s not a shovel in the ground yet,” he said his long experience with Adam Winstanley made him convinced the project was a go. “Knowing Adam Winstanley, this decision does not come lightly,” he said.
The Winstanley company is a real estate development company, and turned the run-down Fellows building in North Springfield into prime real estate for local manufacturing companies. It is also the owner of the former headquarters of Northeast Cooperatives in Brattleboro, a new facility which it converted into business space after the food company went out of business.
Winstanley estimates that the plant would add roughly $9 million annually to the state’s economy, and create a market for what Morgan said was essentially “waste wood.”
He said the plant would use wood from a 50-mile radius of North Springfield, primarily southeastern Vermont and southwest New Hampshire.
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