PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Environmentalists feel community cooperation may help move the needle on the county's last peaker plant transitioning to clean energy.

During Wednesday's Berkshire Green Drinks event hosted by the Berkshire Environmental Action Team, Rosemary Wessel discussed possible green outcomes for Pittsfield Generating Co. on Merrill Road.

"It might be in the interest of the city to leave behind yesterday's technology and start looking at what a clean energy future might look like," said Wessel, No Fracked Gas in Mass program director.

"By replacing it, decarbonizing our last peaker power plant could show that Pittsfield is forward-looking, an environmentally minded place that is friendly to the natural surroundings. Environmental tourism is a big part of Pittsfield and it makes sense to get rid of this last bit of fossil fuel technology that's still hanging around."

Peaking power plants — also known as peaker plants — run when there is a high demand for electricity. Facilities on Woodland Road in Lee and Doreen Street in Pittsfield were shut down in 2022 and have been removed entirely, with usable parts auctioned off.

The remaining is Pittsfield Generating Co., owned by Hull Street Energy. Both the owners and the city have expressed interest in decarbonization, Wessel reported, but a joint meeting has not yet occurred.

She said everyone sounds willing but it hasn't moved yet.

"We'd like to see Pittsfield Generating have a discussion with the city about how to make the transition work," she said.

"They're interested in transitioning, they just haven't found a path yet and I really think that community cooperation might help push that forward."

Possible decarbonization scenarios include adding battery energy storage systems to operations, converting fossil fuel turbines to BESS, or converting to BESS and solar.  BESS uses batteries to store and release electrical energy.