In 1961 President John F. Kennedy recognized the launch of the Niagara Power Project, calling it an outstanding engineering achievement.
Sixty years later, the project has reached two significant milestones for clean energy use.
The first is the modernization and life extension of the Lewiston Pump Generating Plant. The second is the digitizing of the first of 13 hydroelectric turbines at the Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant. These improvements to the state’s largest producer of power is in accordance with the mission to produce more clean energy.
Gov. Kathy Hochul said the upgrades and push to produce more clean energy couldn’t have been envisioned in 1961.
“Our state does not live without this facility,” she said. “We cannot exist without this power. But back then we weren't talking about how important clean power truly was for protecting our environment. We hadn't seen the apocalypse which is now occurring in our country, in our nation, across the world because of climate change. It's been devastating. The floods, the storms, the raging weather records being broken all the time, more water, more high temperature, more fires out west. It's been quite extraordinary.”
The combined investment into both projects sits at over $1.5 billion and the state’s goal is to produce 100% carbon-free energy by the year 2040.
