FUEL CELLS IN OPERATION AT TREATMENT PLANT
NAUGATUCK — New fuel cells are powering the borough’s wastewater treatment plant, saving on electricity bills and greenhouse gas emissions.
“By converting our energy supply here at the water treatment plant from the electric grid to distributed energy that is more reliable, cleaner and less expensive, we are doing the smart thing for today and the next generation of our clean water ratepayers,” Mayor N. Warren “Pete” Hess said.
The borough-owned plant is run by a private firm, Veolia North America.
Hess said the treatment plant, with its incinerator, is one of the largest electricity users in the area.
He said the borough used the energy savings from this project as leverage to negotiate a settlement with Veolia over how much the company should pay the borough in a complex profit-sharing arrangement.
The fuel cells started operation the last week of June, according to Gary Hale, an attorney for the consulting group, Advanced Energy Efficiencies, the project together.
Hess said the project is a significant step in his administration’s which helped put goal of making Naugatuck a clean energy community.
“We want to do this to improve the quality of our air and water, improve our local health, attract private sector investment and new families, and save money,” Hess said.
The three Doosan fuel cells installed at the plant will prevent more than 3 million pounds of carbon dioxide and nearly 10 million pounds of nitrogen oxide from entering the atmosphere, Hess said. He said that’s the equivalent of planting of almost 350 acres of trees every year, removing more than 250 cars from the road each year and conserving more than 4 million gallons of water.
Fuel cells convert natural gas to hydrogen, which, combined with oxygen, produces power. Because the process does not involve combustion, the only byproducts are water and heat.
“Since the fuel is converted directly to electricity and heat, a fuel cell’s total system efficiency can be much higher than internal combustion engines, extracting more energy from the same amount of fuel. The fuel cell itself has no moving parts, making it a quiet and reliable source of power,” according to Doosan.
Eversource installed the gas line to the plant down Cherry Street Extension at no cost to borough, Hess said.
The new fuel cells will allow the facility to pay $175,000 less than the grid rate in the first year of operation and an estimated $4 million less over the next two decades, Hess said.
The project did not cost the borough anything.
“Our obligation under this agreement is to consume and pay for the clean energy now being generated at the savings I mentioned. This is smart government. Naugatuck is going green and saving money in the process,” Hess said.
Hess said he is working on a project to use fuel cell power for the high school, armory and Western School. Although the other municipal buildings aren’t large enough to justify fuel cells, Hess said he is looking at a solar project on the former Laurel Park landfill and using that energy to reduce energy costs at municipal buildings.
Article by Laraine Weschler – Republican-American