About FirstLight
who is firstlight?
FirstLight Power is a leading clean power producer, developer and energy storage company serving North America. The company is also a steward of more than 14,000 acres and hundreds of miles of shoreline along some of our most beautiful rivers and lakes.
For decades, our renewable assets have been delivering clean, safe, reliable electricity to serve our communities. To meet the demand for clean energy as states and provinces transition away from fossil fuels, FirstLight has advanced our mission and swiftly expanded our portfolio to include solar, battery storage and investments in offshore wind – in addition to our legacy pumped-hydro and hydroelectric assets.
We also welcome visitors for boating, camping, hiking, cross-country skiing, birdwatching, picnicking and other recreational and nature-education opportunities at our facilities.
our people
We are proud to employ more than 130 employees, many of which are proudly unionized. We have built a strong leadership group and we are actively seeking additions to our team who are passionate about the clean energy industry and shaping our future.
Our FirstLight family works together to advance our mission to accelerate the decarbonization of the electric grid by supporting the development, operation, and integration of our renewable energy and storage assets by delivering an electric system that is clean, reliable, affordable, and equitable.
Community
FirstLight strives every day to maintain a strong commitment to social responsibility. Our lakes and generation facilities are already important economic drivers to our host communities, but we also believe in being a good neighbor.
We provide opportunities for local environmental, educational, and public safety organizations to compete for grants, support our local lake authorities, and collaboratively work with our neighbors to maintain and improve the local environment.
what does firstlight do?
FirstLight is a renewable energy producer, renewable developer, and energy storage company specializing in hybrid solutions that pair hydroelectric, pumped hydro storage, solar, large-scale battery, and offshore wind assets to create reliable clean energy.
We operate dozens of facilities across North America and proudly serve our host communities and beyond through our clean energy assets, the recreation spaces we steward, and the jobs we produce. In addition to keeping the lights on, FirstLight’s assets are vital resources that help to maintain the reliability of the energy grid.
locations of firstlight facilities
FirstLight operates 13 hydroelectric generating facilities along the Allegheny, Connecticut, Housatonic, Shetucket, Still, and Quinebaug Rivers, collectively producing more than 200 megawatts of power, as well as an 18,000-panel solar farm at Northfield Mountain. FirstLight also operates two of New England’s largest energy storage facilities, located in western Massachusetts and western Connecticut, in addition to two battery storage facilities at UMass Dartmouth and Brandeis University.
Our administrative offices are in Northfield, MA, and New Milford, CT, and our corporate headquarters is located in Burlington, MA.
firstlight green initiatives
FirstLight is committed to environmental stewardship. Our assets are clean, renewable resources that have served as the backbone of New England’s carbon-free fleet since the Industrial Revolution. Each hydroelectric impoundment is managed in consultation with many stakeholder organizations, such as lake authorities, to ensure that lakes, shorelines, recreational facilities, open space, and the rivers themselves are protected from environmental harm. In recent years we have built fish passage facilities, developed and implemented shoreline management plans, and adopted operational best practices that prevent environmental accidents. We have also given back to the community through our grant programs, which to date have contributed more than $1 million in funding for many different projects designed to protect our environment and improve public safety in the communities.
spotlight on: northfield mountain generating station
FirstLight’s largest energy facility is Northfield Mountain in Massachusetts, a “pumped storage” facility commissioned in 1972 that can store more than 8,700 megawatt-hours of electricity every day, which is enough electricty to power more than 1 million homes. Northfield Mountain is known as New England’s “biggest clean battery” and also provides critical backup to our regional electric grid, able to ramp up to its full capability on less than 10 minutes’ notice, which is extremely fast for such a large generation facility.