Governor Kathy Hochul announced that the New York Power Authority (NYPA) Board of Trustees has approved economic development awards to three companies that will create 79 new jobs and spur nearly $46 million in capital investments.
The NYPA board awarded two Erie County businesses with low-cost hydropower allocations—generated at NYPA's Niagara Power Project in Lewiston—and one St. Lawrence County business with funding through the Northern New York Power Proceeds program.
LW1 Operator, a cannabis production company, was awarded 2,930 kilowatts (kW) of low-cost hydroelectric power by the NYPA Board of Trustees.
LW1 plans to invest at least $24.2 million to develop a 75,000 square-foot cannabis production facility in Buffalo that will create 75 jobs.
The project will include activities related to cannabis manufacturing, cultivation, packaging and distribution.
NYPA's board also approved a 400-kW low-cost hydropower allocation to Niagara Refining in Erie County.
The company is a manufacturer of tungsten raw materials, which are commonly used in alloys to create high-density items such as turbine blades, heat sinks, and x-ray tubes.
Niagara Refining is planning a multifaceted expansion at its Depew facility that includes the installation of several critical systems. The expansion project will involve a capital investment of at least $8.3 million.
At the meeting, the NYPA board also awarded $300,000 from the Northern New York Power Proceeds program to Woodcrest RNG of Ogdensburg in St. Lawrence County.
Woodcrest will use the funds to construct a waste-to-energy management solution by collecting manure from three local dairy farms and transporting it through a pipeline to an adjacent Lisbon farm where it will be processed into biogas using anaerobic digesters.
The project will generate renewable natural gas from dairy manure biogas, which can be used as a substitute for natural gas generated from fossil fuels to reduce carbon emissions.
The biogas will be upgraded and cleaned using a biogas processing facility to produce pipeline-quality renewable natural gas that will be sold into the natural gas marketplace to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The funding award will directly result in more than $13.4 million in capital investment. ■