Thomas MacMillan Photo
Environmental consultant Giovanni Zinn at a possible fuel cell site.
City Hall moves forward Tuesday with plans to install a new green energy source in a now-empty plaza, solidifying New Haven’s claim as the “fuel cell capital of the state.”
That’s an impressive claim, considering Connecticut is the “fuel cell capital of the world,” according to Giovanni Zinn, an environmental consultant in New Haven’s Office of Sustainability.
Zinn has been spearheading a move to install a fuel cell behind City Hall to provide all the electricity and most of the heating and cooling required by City Hall and the Hall of Records. The city has issued a request for proposals (RFP), seeking companies to install and maintain the fuel cell.
Applicants will gather for a mandatory meeting on Tuesday. See RFP details here, here, and here.
The city has identified two potential spots for the fuel cell. It could go on a raised platform either between City Hall and the Hall of Records or along Orange Street in the plaza between the Hall of Records and the building next door.
While the city ponders a new addition to that plaza, some other — supposedly temporary and decidedly non-green — additions are still hanging around in contiguous Federal Plaza. Despite a claim from the federal government that cars would park there for only three months, it’s now been six months since they started showing up there. A new statement from the feds indicates that they’re not likely to go anywhere (see below).
The fuel cell will cost around $3 million, Zinn predicted. A third of that money will come from a grant from the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund, he said. The remainder will likely come from bonding. Although the Board of Aldermen has approved some funding for energy generation at City Hall, further aldermanic approval will likely be required, said Rob Smuts, the city’s chief administrative officer.
Possible location #1
The fuel cell would be the city’s fifth. Cells are installed at 360 State, the Roberto Clemente Leadership Academy, the Water Pollution Control Authority, and the Peabody Museum, Zinn said. That makes New Haven the state leader in fuel cell use, he said.
The fuel cell might be supplied by either FuelCell Energy of Danbury, or UTC Power of South Windsor. Those are the two leading fuel cell companies globally, which makes Connecticut the world leader, Zinn said.
The unit will probably weigh some 60,000 pounds and look something like a shipping container, Zinn said.
Fuel cells generate electricity from natural gas at a low cost and with very few byproducts, Zinn said. While the electricity alone makes the unit a worthwhile investment, “the big financial benefit is capturing the heat” the cell generates, Zinn said. That heat will be used to heat — and cool — City Hall and the Hall of Records. It will supply 60 percent of the buildings’ heating needs, and 30 percent of cooling needs, he said. The cooling comes from the installation of a counter-intuitive “absorption chiller” that runs on heat. “You take heat and make cool out of it,” Zinn said.
Possible location #2
Zinn said the unit will be mostly quiet, with maybe a soft hum. While the city is looking at “screening” options to fit the cell in architecturally, Zinn said it’s also important that the cell be noticed, to highlight New Haven’s use of green energy technology.
“Some people will like it, some people won’t. Like everything else,” Zinn said.
A fuel cell would allow the city to extract itself from an energy-sharing arrangement with the Chase Financial Center next door to City Hall. The two buildings share electricity, heating, and cooling from an underground plant behind City Hall. That deal, which has been a money-loser for the city for years, expires at the end of 2012. Zinn said the plan is to have a fuel cell in place before that deadline.
Thomas MacMillan Photo
Even with a fuel cell, City Hall would still need to share with Chase for some of its heating and cooling, said Zinn (pictured). But overall, a cell would be a win for the city, saving about $2 million over the unit’s 10-year lifespan, Zinn said.
“I think it’s exciting to look at reasonable energy technology that’s actually going to be more cost-effective for us than traditional energy technologies,” said Smuts. He said a fuel cell would be both environmentally and financially advantageous.
Cars Remain
Some six months ago, parked cars started showing up in the federal plaza behind City Hall, which is under the jurisdiction of the federal General Services Administration (GSA). Cathy Menzies, a spokeswoman for the GSA, said at the time that parking was permitted in the plaza on a temporary basis only, while garage repairs displaced federal employees.
A recent visit to the plaza found about a dozen cars still parked in the plaza.
In an email on Monday, Menzies offered the following statement: “The Giaimo garage has been reopened but there are still a couple of contractors working on the plaza as part of the garage repair project that should be completed within the next couple of weeks.
“Limited parking behind the courthouse for U.S. Courts and U.S. Marshals’ vehicles has always been permitted.”
great.
sounds like a good investment