An innovative fuel cell development that has been a decade in the making is now under construction and will provide heat to a nearby university and generate enough electricity annually that could potentially service 8,500 homes.
Scale Microgrids, the project’s New Jersey-based developer, expects the 3.5-story Bridgeport development near Interstate 95, with 21 fuel cells to come online next year, and the company sees future expansion of its base of customers purchasing heat. The clean energy development will initially provide heat to nearly 20 buildings at the University of Bridgeport and a new city high school. In addition, the project also has signed on a local company that sterilizes medical waste.
“This is certainly a project that we are very excited about,” Daniel Forero, vice president of capital markets at Scale Microgrids, said. “Connecticut, in general, is a state where we have been expanding our presence. This project was a large investment in that long term strategy of expanding our presence there.”
Scale Microgrids declined to comment on the project’s cost. But a 2021 filing with the Connecticut Siting Council estimated the cost to be about $70 million, with a capital investment of up to $78 million but that does not reflect price increases sparked during the pandemic.
Scale Microgrids, which specializes in energy generation and storage systems located close to where they are used, acquired the 9.6-megawatt project from Easton-based NuPower in 2024 but it wasn’t announced until earlier this year when financing for the project was completed, partly by investment tax credits. Terms of the sale weren’t disclosed.
The heating and power development — known as the Charter Oak Combined Heat and Power Project — is launching construction as the state this year has updated its greenhouse gas reduction targets. The reduction target is 65% below 2001 levels by 2040 and an economy-wide, net-zero level by 2050, provided those emissions are reduced at least 80% below 2001 levels.
J. Scott Guilmartin, co-founder of NuPower, said the use of natural gas to power the fuel cells in attractive because it is projected to reduce 2,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere in Bridgeport.
“It’s an area that has a significant issue with asthma and other breathing-type issues,” said Guilmartin, who remains a consultant on the project. “So it’s environmentally really desirable for us to be able to do this.”
NuPower, a renewable energy developer, spent a decade on the project, going back to 2014 when the city of Bridgeport, NuPower and United Illuminating Co. first partnered on the idea of a fuel cell plant that would provide heat through an underground network of pipes carrying hot water and would supply the local electrical grid.
In addition to heating spaces, the project also will provide “domestic” hot water, essentially water out of the tap.
The project took years to build legislative support and wind its way through regulatory approvals. There were local detractors, including neighbors who worried about noise, emissions and their property values. The pandemic slowed progress, and there also was skepticism about the project until it had signed on heating customers.
The Connecticut Green Bank provided a $400,000 loan for the project to fund pre-construction design work, Guilmartin said.
NuPower also was the developer of the $200 million biomass, electricity-producing plant in Plainfield in 2013. NuPower subsequently sold the plant.
At the heart of the Bridgeport project are fuel cells, which convert natural gas to hydrogen, in an electrochemical process that produces combustion-free electricity and waste heat. The electricity will be sold back to UI and the heat will warm the water to create heat and hot water.
At the University of Bridgeport, the system will replace an aging network of natural gas-fired boilers and provide heat at a cost savings of as much as 10%, according to Guilmartin.
“This is very similar to geothermal and that both are using hot water, except that our source is going to be from a fuel cell instead of from the Earth,” said Guilmartin, who remains a consultant on the project.
The university did not immediately have a comment.
HyAxiom, an East Hartford-based fuel cell maker with manufacturing operations in South Windsor, will produce, install and operate the fuel cells. HyAxiom, owned by South Korea’s Doosan Corp., was once United Technologies Corp’s fuel cell business. UTC, long based in Hartford and then Farmington, was acquired by Raytheon in 2020, and the combined companies are now known as RTX Corp.
Hartford has a similar system serving dozens of buildings in and around downtown including the Travelers tower, City Hall and CityPlace I. Hartford Steam Co.’s two district energy systems — using a combination of oil, natural gas and electricity — provide both heating and cooling, a service that got its start in the 1960s.
What distinguishes the Bridgeport project is the use of fuel cells and the magnitude of the project, Guilmartin said. The plant that is now being built on a triangular, half-acre wedge of land hugging I-95 and also includes the installation of underground pipes and the connection to a UI substation for the sale of electricity. Power would be sold to the utility under a purchase agreement approved by the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority in 2019.
Guilmartin said the project also has another benefit because the city of Bridgeport receives an annual payment in lieu of taxes of about $240,000.
“So considering that the property was only generating a little over $3,000 a year in property taxes, this is a real plus for the city,” Guilmartin said.
Kenneth R. Gosselin can be reached at [email protected].