AES Corporation

Siting a super-efficient power plant with community support

IssuesOutcomesServices

Issues

AES Corporation, an international energy generation and distribution company, needed help siting an innovative 720 MW combined-cycle natural gas-fired power plant in New Hampshire. While the facility was to employ technology nearly twice as efficient as older power plants, local residents were concerned that the plant would generate noise, pollution, and other negative environmental impacts.

Outcomes

CLF Ventures introduced AES to a prospective site for the facility at a proposed eco-industrial park in Londonderry, New Hampshire, and advised AES on permitting strategy and ways to strengthen local support for the project. We moderated extensive discussions amongst a multi-stakeholder collaborative regarding the plant’s design and operational requirements. This community siting collaborative met regularly for one year and reached consensus on noise, pollutants, and environmental offsets. The plant obtained all requisite environmental permits and began full-scale operations in 2002.

The resulting facility has several environmental upsides, including:

• Avoiding impact on sensitive wetlands;
• Recycling wastewater for cooling, which avoids withdrawal of 4 million gallons per day from potable water sources);
• Significantly cleaner emissions than coal and oil burning plants. Compared to New Hampshire’s existing oil and coal plants, the AES natural gas plant emits 1/225th the sulfur dioxide (SO2), 1/30th the nitrogen oxides (NOx), and virtually no mercury or lead.

Services Utilized

Analysis
CLF Ventures conducted a strategic environmental review of plant design and made recommendations to minimize environmental impacts. Those include developing systems and processes that minimize the impact on the environment and demonstrate energy efficiency, pollution prevention, integration with the landscape, environmental management, regulatory compliance, and cost effectiveness. At the time it was brought online, the facility was the cleanest, most technologically advanced power plant in New England history.

Strategy
CLF Ventures advised AES on a permitting strategy and ways to strengthen local support for the project. CLF Ventures also guided and supported AES’ efforts to adopt an environmentally responsible and community-sensitive approach to power generation. In addition to impressively reducing pollution, AES took great pains to address citizen concerns about noise, traffic, and aesthetics and to minimize the visual impact of the facility. Tons of dirt and sand were removed to lower the electrical switching station by six feet, making it less visible and providing an additional noise buffer. The plant’s main building was designed to blend with the landscape far better than do typical industrial buildings. To preserve as many trees as possible and to maximize the acreage of surrounding wetlands, AES altered its original site layout, moving the plant to an 11-acre portion of the site, where trees had previously been removed and the ground disturbed.

Communication
CLF Ventures established a collaborative community siting panel through which we interfaced for all plant permitting needs. This collaborative also provided a forum for information about the proposed plant, its health impacts, benefits, and visual and noise impacts. CLF Ventures also provided continual, multi-lingual education and outreach to all residents, business owners, elected officials, community leaders and others.