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Connecticut Promoting Renewable Energy Sources to Businesses

Posted on: Tuesday, 20 September 2005, 21:00 CDT

Sep. 21--With high energy costs hard to ignore, the state is pushing to make renewable energy sources such as fuel cells or solar panels more attractive to businesses.

The Connecticut Clean Energy Fund will pay up to $2 million in grants for businesses to set up such renewable energy generating facilities at their sites. The fund has a total of $21 million to try to stimulate demand for installing renewable energy plants at buildings statewide.

"Our challenge is that renewable energy has not become commercially competitive, so we have to finance the gap and make it viable for the public," said Lise Dondy, chief operating officer of the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund.

The clean energy fund, set up by the state legislature in 1998, seeks to help businesses use energy more efficiently. The onsite generation program, to be launched before the end of the year, targets municipal, public and industry facilities, colleges and hospitals.

"By placing small, onsite distribution plants at hospitals and hotels, we will have created alternatives to huge energy plants," Dondy said. "These facilities could use fuel cells for their energy needs and the [extra] heat generated could help run their laundry sections, so energy is not only saved, it is used to its highest attribute."

One example, she said, is a fuel cell generator installed at the New Haven Water Pollution Control Authority, where excess thermal energy provides supplemental hot water to an adjacent building.

Dondy was in Waterbury on Tuesday for a two-day workshop entitled "Energy Solutions for your Organization" sponsored by the fund. Attended by nearly 100 people, the workshop began Tuesday and ends today at the Courtyard by Marriott.

She said the meeting was "unfortunately timely" given the effects of Hurricane Katrina, which brought the issue of oil and gasoline prices sharply into focus.

Not everyone is impressed with such programs though.

Setting up renewable energy plants is expensive, said Donald McCurdy, president of Environmental Systems Corp., a West Hartford-based firm that helps companies save on energy. "Businesses want to see a quicker return on their investment," he said. "A lot can be done by simply conserving more energy and educating people on how not to waste energy."

That may be true, says John M. Brown, project leader at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado, but renewable energy is a viable option when overall costs are considered. "Traditionally, people look at savings in cents per hour, but you need to look at other benefits," Brown said.

Domestic production of fuel, job creation, reduced emissions and diversification of fuel options are some advantages that need to be considered, he said. "When you bundle all of these and look at the complete picture, the efficiency paybacks will become clearer."

With the domestic energy market under strain, it will become increasingly important to harness wind, sun, geothermal and biomass energy, such as conversion of crops into liquid fuel, Brown added.

The cost of technology used to supply renewable energy, such as solar panels, has been going down, Brown said. "Nationally, 2 percent of energy comes from renewable sources. By 2015, we hope this will go up to 8 to 10 percent."

Donald Downes, chairman of the state Department of Public Utility Control, said the state faces difficult energy challenges. For instance, consumers could expect to pay 34 percent more for heating oil, 52 percent more for natural gas and 11 percent more for electricity this winter, he said.

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Copyright (c) 2005, Waterbury Republican-American, Conn.

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MAR, ESC,

Source: Waterbury Republican-American

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