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STATUS: Active | Full site plan expected to have been received by Borough. RTK Filed.
Last updated: 4/9/2026
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The same developer behind Project Boson has formed a new entity, Essential Energy LLC, to propose a natural gas-powered electric plant at 1000 Main Street, directly across the street. The 17 acre site is the former Highway Auto salvage yard, less than 1,000 feet from Ed Staback Park and bordering the Highlands residential neighborhood.
What's planned for that site is not a small neighborhood utility. Site plans show a 55 foot facility anchored by four 66,000 square foot turbine pads, with smokestacks and cooling towers permitted to rise even higher, potentially above the tree line of nearby homes. Over 11 acres of the property would be covered by buildings and pavement, requiring complex stormwater management to protect the adjacent parkland. This is a heavy industrial operation, zoned I-2, proposed to run day and night in the heart of the community.
Unlike the data center projects across the street, this one isn't permitted by right. Power plants are a Conditional Use in Archbald meaning the Borough Council must hold public hearings and cast a decisive vote on whether the noise, traffic, and industrial scale are compatible with community health and safety. The Council has the legal authority to deny this project outright or impose strict conditions to protect residents. But they need to hear from you first. Your presence at the public hearings is the single most direct way to shape what happens on Main Street.