THE PLANT

Russell Biomass is a 50-megawatt, wood-fired electrical power plant that will be built on the site of the Westfield River Paper Company mill that has been closed since 1994. The site has been used for industrial purposes for more than a century. This location is a brownfield site, unfit for any use other than industrial. It is also currently a blighted property, as the long-neglected paper mill building is in a state of disrepair.

Russell Biomass will make this site productive again, providing energy to our region, bringing jobs to Russell and surrounding towns, and providing an average of at least $600,000 annually in tax revenues over the life of the plant to the Town of Russell.

The power Russell Biomass generates will be sufficient to satisfy the energy demands of 30% of the 186,000 homes in Hampden County and will offset oil consumption by 480,000 barrels a year.

About 500,000 tons of clean wood fuel will be consumed annually. The fuel will include whole tree chips from land clearing, forest management residues, roadside tree trimming and power line maintenance, ground stumps, and ground pallets. All of the wood burned will be natural wood - that is, wood with a virgin wood content. We will not be permitted to burn anything else.

Russell Biomass will be the second largest renewable energy project (after Cape Wind) to be developed in Massachusetts. In addition to helping address the growing oil supply crisis and environmental problems created by fossil fuel consumption, Russell Biomass will bring 22 permanent full-time jobs to Russell. Construction of the plant, which is expected to take two years, will create 50 local area jobs. In addition to these direct employment benefits, 200 additional jobs will be created in the fuel supply, transportation and other service sectors.

As with any industrial project, there are impacts as well as benefits. See our  Impacts page for details on these impacts and how we will mitigate them.