The sun has set on NRG’s ownership of the Dunkirk power station, which started operation in 1950.

NRG Energy Inc.’s era in Dunkirk and northern Chautauqua County has come to an end after a more than a quarter-century partnership that began in 1999. It was in June of that year when the company purchased the Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. station.

As part of that same deal, it also purchased the Huntley Station located in Tonawanda. Both coal-fired plants went through major renovations while under NRG’s ownership while generating 760 MW of power through coal generation that was some of the cleanest in the nation.

During those years the plant hummed, NRG had a strong presence in the community — through its employment and support of nonprofits.

In 2016, both plants were mothballed by the company as New York state went a different direction with power generation — looking to get away from fossil fuels and transition to renewables of solar and wind.

On Monday, NRG announced the sale of the massive Dunkirk site to Genover, a firm focused on responsibly redeveloping legacy industrial properties. On its website, the company says it has been “built on more than 25 years of operating, engineering, and capital markets experience across the industrial energy sector. The platform exists on a thesis that the American energy transition would require a new kind of operator — one capable of moving capital across the full industrial asset lifecycle rather than specializing in any single stage.”

Headquartered in Boerne, Texas, with project experience spanning North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific, its portfolio spans utility-scale generation, brownfield industrial properties, engineering design services, and end-of-life decommissioning.

“We work with utilities planning generation retirements, sponsors evaluating industrial acquisitions, public entities structuring infrastructure mandates, and capital partners seeking platform exposure to the energy transition,” the company maintains on its website. “In every engagement, our commitment is the same: rigorous diligence, disciplined execution, and outcomes that compound over time.”

An email sent to officials at Genover on Monday had not been returned to the OBSERVER by Tuesday afternoon. But Vince DeJoy of Dunkirk’s Development Department indicated that he had been in conversations with the company in previous years.

“This is the news that the people of Dunkirk have long awaited,” DeJoy said in the statement. “Through the planning studies funded by ARC and NYSERDA with top consultants and the persistence of our local team, Dunkirk is positioned for new and great possibilities for potential new development.”

One of the projects referenced by Genover included a power plant in the State Line Generating Station in Hammond, Ind. According to the Whiting-Robertsdale Historical Society in Indiana, the station was “an engineering and architectural marvel, supplying the electricity needed for the Commonwealth Edison and Northern Indiana Public Service systems to power the businesses, farms and homes of millions of people in Northwest Indiana and Northern Illinois. For 25 of its 83 years it was the largest electric generating station in the world.”

In 2012, Dominion Resources made the decision against complying with the strict EPA coal regulations and against upgrading the equipment necessary to continue operating the facility that led to the plant closing.

That site is now home to the Digital Crossroad Indiana Data Center, which is located on Lake Michigan. “This pioneering project will be incredibly impactful for our community and the State of Indiana,” hailed Hammond’s Mayor Thomas M. McDermott Jr. regarding the project in 2025. “The Community Impact Payments the city will be receiving from CoreWeave as part of the Development Agreement will not only help with new city-wide infrastructure and quality of life initiatives, but also will help thousands of students in Hammond go to college, through our College Bound program. It can’t get more impactful than that.”

As part of the NRG feasibility and reuse study and alternatives analysis from June 2021 that was prepared for the city of Dunkirk and Chautauqua County, a data center and industrial redevelopment with a data center were two of the preferred re-use concepts for the site, according to the report. Other proposals included in the report were repowering of the facility, industrial development and a battery storage facility.

While Dunkirk is parting amicably with NRG, its neighbors to the north remain locked in a legal dispute. The town of Tonawanda is aiming to secure the Huntley plant site through eminent domain. NRG, however, is not interested in that option at the moment.