Three alternative energy companies have applied for state funding to generate power sufficient for at least 28,000 homes in southwest Connecticut.
The bids were submitted to the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund, whose Project 150 program subsidizes the relatively high cost of green power generation. Under a 2003 state law, Connecticut power companies must sell a combined 150 megawatts of power generated by alternative energy sources by this October. A megawatt provides sufficient power for the equivalent of at least 700 homes, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
If approved and installed, the current proposals would add 71 megawatts of energy from renewable sources for a statewide total of nearly 200 megawatts.
Project 150 is one of multiple programs state programs aiming to cut energy emissions or costs, including the Connecticut Clean Energy Communities program. Sherman, the northernmost town in Fairfield County, became the latest municipality to join the program, pledging to obtain 20 percent of the energy needs for town buildings from renewable sources by 2010.
Danbury, Newtown, Redding and Ridgefield have also signed onto the program.
Danbury is the target of EPG Fuel Cell”™s plans to generate 23 megawatts of power under the Project 150 proposal. The company is a joint venture of Vermont-based Catamount Energy Corp. and Elemental Power Group L.L.C. of New York City.
Danbury-based FuelCell Energy Inc. is planning a 15 megawatt plant in Bridgeport, on the heels of the company reporting the largest backlog in its history at $135 million in the first quarter thanks in part to a large order from a South Korean company. While FuelCell Energy revenue nearly tripled in the first quarter from a year ago to $32 million, the company reported a $26 million loss Milford-based DFC-ERG L.L.C. plans to create a 3 megawatt fuel cell in Trumbull.
Fuel cells generate electrical current by chemically stripping electrons from fuels like hydrogen, then recombining the reformed hydrogen atoms with oxygen to produce water as an emission.
The largest single proposed project was a 20 megawatt system that would create energy from gases emitted at a Versailles landfill.
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