About the Project
What we're proposing, why this site, how the technology works, and who we are. Everything starts with the facts.
Project Overview
Carpenter Hill Power proposes a 150 MW / 600 MWh battery energy storage system using 136 Tesla Megablock (Megapack 3) units. The facility would be located on a 15-acre leased area within a 47.13-acre parcel at 131 Carpenter Hill Road, Charlton, Massachusetts, interconnecting to the existing Carpenter Hill 115 kV substation operated by National Grid.
More content is coming to this page as the design and the state review move forward. Every published project document lives in the Document Library.
The Land and Its Neighbors
The project parcel sits at 131 Carpenter Hill Road in Charlton, about one mile west of the town center and a mile and a half south of the Massachusetts Turnpike. The town assessor lists it as parcel 43-A-1, at 47.13 acres. Nearly all of the parcel is wooded today, and one house stands on it near the road. Two overhead transmission lines, one at 115 kV and one at 345 kV, cross the parcel in an existing utility corridor. State mapping shows wetlands and a flood plain on parts of the land, and the site plan marks where they lie.
The battery equipment area covers about 15 of those acres. A 1.57-acre easement carries the interconnection route, which brings the total project area to about 16.6 acres. On the current preliminary site plan, the equipment area sits in the interior of the parcel, well back from Carpenter Hill Road.
Most of the neighboring land is also woods. Homes line Carpenter Hill Road near the parcel's northwest corner, more homes sit on wooded lots nearby, and one neighboring property is a working farm. Across Carpenter Hill Road to the west, National Grid's Carpenter Hill Substation stands on Snake Hill Road, about 500 feet from the parcel. That is where the project would connect to the grid. The area north and west of the parcel also holds a solar array and a few small industrial properties.
Farther out, Prindle Lake and its town beach lie about 0.7 miles south. Capen Hill Nature Sanctuary is about 0.9 miles northwest. Charlton Elementary School is just under a mile northeast, where the town center begins with the library, town hall, churches, and recreation fields. The Overlook retirement community is about a mile north.
Check the details for yourself on the interactive map, in the printable location map with all twelve verified landmarks within one mile, in the preliminary site plan, and in the 2023 Critical Issues Analysis, which describes the surrounding land uses in detail.