Some Real Numbers About Transitioning a Coal Plant to a Solar Farm

Power density will be on display this morning in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Virtually anyway. There is a groundbreaking for a 5.8 MW solar farm beginning at 10:30. This is wonderful news. The old, inefficient, environmentally challenged, coal-fired Mt. Tom Power Station ceased operation in 2014. The community wondered whether it would be a long-lived eyesore (like the long-closed English Station in New Haven, Connecticut) or would something new come along to take its place (like the remodeling of Chester Station in Pennsylvania into Class A office space with a soccer stadium to go with it? Or would it remain true to its existential essence and continue to deliver electricity, albeit from a different source?