Fuel Cell Energy, Inc. a company offering the fuel cell solutions for the supply, recovery and storage of energy, recently announced the signing of long-term power purchase agreements (PPA) with the local distribution utilities. The PPAs will cover a 14.8-megawatt fuel cell project in the town of Derby that was one of the projects awarded in June 2018 by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) in a competitive solicitation.
The fuel cell project will provide infrastructure investment in the Derby area, which is expected to drive local economic development and environmental improvement through state sales tax and the local property taxes generated, as well as create and maintain high-tech manufacturing and construction jobs in Connecticut.
The PPA agreements have been forwarded to the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) for final authorization.
The fuel cell power plant will be developed on a vacant parcel located in a mixed industrial, commercial and residential area north of Lake Housatonic. The highly efficient fuel cells will deliver competitively priced, Class I Renewable Energy in a compact footprint by remediating and repurposing a municipal brownfield in the city of Derby.
The project will employ the latest configuration of SureSource fuel cell technology with electrical efficiency approaching 60%. SureSource power plants provide ultra-clean, efficient and reliable distributed power generation. The fuel cells combine a fuel such as renewable biogas, directed biogas or clean natural gas with oxygen from the ambient air to efficiently produce ultra-clean electricity and usable high-quality heat via an electrochemical process.
Customers experience operating cost reductions delivered in a manner that supports sustainability goals and enhances power reliability.
