The best reuse for the decommissioned NRG power plant is as a computer data storage site or as some kind of industrial development with the data center included. That’s according to a study commissioned by the city of Dunkirk and the county and presented Tuesday.

The study, headed up by Buffalo’s Bergmann Group, identified seven alternatives. They are:

¯ Repowering the plant, using coal or natural gas;

¯ Using the site to support off-shore wind development;

¯ Renovating the facility to create a microgrid to distribute power off the main grid;

¯ A “clean slate” for the site, demolishing everything and doing a massive environmental cleanup to get the site ready for recreational, residential or mixed-use development;

¯ Redeveloping the site for some sort of industrial use;

¯ A power storage facility, where electricity generated off-site would be stored in batteries;

¯ A computer data storage center.

The study bluntly states that repowering is not feasible due to a lack of political support at the state and federal levels. It also dismisses the off-shore wind connection as presenting enormous and probably unsolvable technical and political challenges. The microgrid idea was set aside due to a perceived lack of government support and lack of local demand for it.

The “clean slate” alternative is seen as feasible, but with big challenges. A big one is the cost: it would cost an estimated $12 million to demolish the structures, $3 million to $6 million to clean up environmental hazards and then up to $20 million in additional remediation to get the site to a clean, marketable level.

The study notes that any such redevelopment would have to be market driven. The National Grid switch yard in the middle of the site would also literally be in the way of such a reuse, as the company has no plans to abandon that right now.

The industrial reuse, the power storage and the computer data center options were seen as the preferred alternatives, due to relatively low environmental cleanup costs and their use of some of the existing infrastructure on site. The power storage site was apparently the third place option because it would create a relatively low amount of jobs compared to an industrial use or a data center.