A state authority is recommending the construction of five plants in Fairfield County to supply utilities with electricity from renewable sources of energy.
A 2003 law requires Connecticut Light & Power Co. and United Illuminating Co. to buy at least 100 megawatts of power from “green” sources such as fuel cells and landfill gases.
A megawatt supplies sufficient power for between 750 and 1,000 homes. Fairfield County consumed a record 7,172 megawatts of power in an August heat wave last year.
Connecticut Clean Energy Fund (CCEF), which administers the fund, last week selected 11 projects statewide in its Project 100 initiative to spur adoption of renewable plants, which are difficult to finance without long-term purchase agreements from utilities.
If the utilities give the green light to build the plants, the plant developers will receive funding from CCEF.
In separate news, CCEF freed up $780,000 to cover half the cost of R.C. Bigelow Co. installing solar panels at its Fairfield headquarters. The panels will provide 171 kilovolts of electricity, about 6 percent of the facility”™s needs.
The Fairfield County proposals alone would satisfy 88 megawatts of generational capacity.
Proposed plants include:
? a 29.9-megawatt landfill-gas project in South Norwalk by Emcor Energy Services.
? 19.6-megawatt fuel-cell facilities in Bridgeport and Danbury by Elemental Power Group.?? a 13.7-megawatt fuel-cell installation in Bridgeport by FuelCell Energy, Pure Power L.L.C., and Pinpoint Power L.L.C.
? a 4.6-megawatt fuel-cell project by Emcor in Stamford.
Elemental Power Group indicated in early March that it had proposed two 30-megawatt plants for Fairfield County, each costing $120 million and using systems from Danbury-based FuelCell Energy.
The largest generators proposed for outside Fairfield County are a 30-megawatt woodchip incinerator for Plainfield, proposed by NuPower L.L.C. and Decker Energy International Inc. and a facility in Bozrah that would generate 27.8 megawatts of power. That plant would run off scrap wood as well as manure from the nearby Kofkoff Egg Farm.
“Our thorough and objective vetting process allowed us to identify those projects that have the potential to provide the greatest level of fuel and technological diversity while minimizing the cost to Connecticut”™s ratepayers,” said Jerome Peters, chair of the Project 100 steering committee, in a prepared statement. “The companies that proposed these projects are a great asset to the state, advancing an industry vital to our economy, our environment and our quality of life in Connecticut.”
In the first round of Project 100 grants, Connecticut Light & Power and United Illuminating committed to purchasing 15 megawatts of green energy.
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