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Preparing for Holland Energy Park

Preparing for Holland Energy Park

Holland Energy Park™ grounds feature paved walking trails that will be integrated into the Macatawa Greenway system. This construction project gave our community the opportunity to restore a largely environmentally neglected corner of the city, preserving the surrounding wetlands and increasing community access.

Preparing the Future Home of Holland Energy Park

For decades, a 26-acre district near Windmill Island wetlands sat largely forgotten by our community. The region was one of the first settled farmlands of Holland and at one point served as a pathway for an interurban rail system to Lake Michigan. But that was nearly a century ago, and since then had collected a mix of aging, environmentally neglected industrial and residential parcels.

In 2013, HBPW and community leaders concluded a power planning process and identified a 26-acre district as the best fit for the plant, given its proximity to downtown for snowmelt support and natural gas access.

What started as a site-preparation project soon became much more – an environmental and urban renewal initiative to restore and protect the natural space, battle invasive species and remove and recycle harmful materials scattered across the site.

Award-Winning

Holland Energy Park recently received the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure’s (ISI) Envision® Platinum award recognizing the sustainability of public infrastructure. Holland Energy Park is the first-in-the-country base load power generating plant to receive an Envision rating.

Envision is a verification process specifically designed to rate the sustainability of infrastructure. The process measures five categories: Quality of Life, Leadership, Natural World, Resource Allocation, and Climate and Risk. The categories measure the positive social, economic and environmental impacts in a community throughout the planning, design and construction of infrastructure projects.

Construction of the Park

Satellite image of Macatawa watershed along former First street with trees and dilapidated buildings.
Before Cleanup
Satellite image of former First street with open fields after environmental clean up and building demolition.
After Cleanup
Satellite image of Holland Energy Park as it is being built with cranes and many cars in the parking lot.
During Construction