A Texas-based energy company wants to develop a large-scale battery energy storage system near the site of the former Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station.
PowerTransitions has been talking with local officials and has an agreement in place with the owner of the Vernon property, NorthStar Group Services, to potentially lease the site.
Vermont Public Service Commissioner Kerrick Johnson has requested a meeting with the company to get more details on its proposal to develop the approximately 140 acres along the Connecticut River in Windham County.
“Once I became aware that there is a relationship between PowerTransitions and NorthStar, in our role to advocate on behalf of all Vermont ratepayers, this is a part of our departmental due diligence,” Johnson said.
Johnson said any consideration of siting a project in Vernon would have to take into account the high-level nuclear waste that is being stored near the former nuclear power plant.
“The site in Vernon has strengths and weaknesses,” Johnson said. “The high-level radioactive waste has to be viewed as something that has to be respected and avoided at all costs.”
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, on its website, says battery storage systems “have raised legitimate safety concerns,” because they can catch fire and release harmful gases that pose health risks to nearby residents and first responders.
A representative from the company has been meeting with the Vernon Planning Commission about the plan.
“It’s got our interest,” said Vernon Planning Commission Chair Jim Pinkerton. “At this point this is kind of back-of-the-envelope sort of thing, but the demand for power is increasing all over the place, and there’s no telling where those industries are going to go.”
PowerTransitions first contacted NorthStar about two years ago, according to NorthStar CEO Scott State.
PowerTransitions acquires operating and retired power generation and industrial facilities, according to the company’s website, to “transform them into modern, resilient energy infrastructure campuses.”
State said he introduced the PowerTransitions officials to the town of Vernon, adding that it is still NorthStar’s intention to, “allow redevelopment of the site for a use preferred by the town of Vernon.”
NorthStar acquired the closed Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in 2019, becoming the first company in the United States to own a nuclear facility with the intention of dismantling and decommissioning the property.
Since then, NorthStar has removed more than 76,000 tons of material, much of which is low-level radioactive waste, that has been shipped to a storage facility in Texas.
The high-level radioactive waste is being stored in 58 dry storage casks in Vernon until the federal government decides where it can be permanently stored.
