Region 1: EPA New England

Connecticut Communities Providing Leadership on Energy Efficiency and Clean Energy

By Robert W. Varney December 15, 2003

CT | ME | MA | NH | VT Archive

While it hasn’t yet reached the glory of Connecticut patriot Nathan Hale and the American Revolution, another revolution is underway across much of Connecticut. And like the epic uprising 228 years ago, this revolution evolves around freedom – freedom from expensive, polluting energy sources.

From fuel cells in New Haven, to solar panels in Fairfield to energy-efficient street lights in Hamden and Stamford, dozens of Connecticut communities are on a mission to dramatically reduce their overall energy consumption while boosting their reliance on clean renewable sources of energy.

Spurred by the prospect of large cost savings on energy bills and growing citizen interest in less-polluting energy sources, communities as big as Hartford and as small as Windham are developing formal action plans that document where energy dollars are being spent and where energy reductions and cost savings can be found in buildings, street lights, transportation or disposing trash.

With renewable energy technologies more readily available, communities such as New Haven and Fairfield also are moving aggressively to supplement traditional energy sources with solar panels, fuel cells and other clean-power sources that are being installed on school buildings and other municipal properties.

These municipal programs are great news for New England’s environment because they are reducing the region’s reliance on fossil-fuel power plants, which emit greenhouse gas emissions as well as other pollutants that cause elevated smog levels, acid rain and mercury deposition. They’re also great news for local taxpayers because they are saving cities and towns money at a time when municipal budgets and school budgets are razor-tight.

Backed with technical and financial assistance from state and federal agencies, as well as local utilities which have millions of dollars available for energy efficiency programs, the benefits of these energy efficiency and clean energy programs are already widespread. Among the highlights:

• Stamford’s $250,000-plus investment in occupancy sensors, variable frequency drives and other energy efficiency measures at the city’s Government Center has slashed the building’s electric bills by 24 percent, or $124,000 a year. More than half of the energy efficiency improvements were paid for by a local utility.

• New Haven, Stamford and Hamden are saving hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on their energy bills by replacing their traffic lights with energy-efficient Light Emitting Diode traffic lamps, which use 80 to 90 percent less energy and are certified under EPA’s Energy Star Program. The cities are also saving tens of thousands of dollars a year on maintenance costs since the LEDs last three to four times longer than the older traffic lights.

• A new hydrogen fuel cell facility at New Haven’s wastewater treatment plant will save the city nearly $700,000 on its electric bills over the next 10 years, while also supplying the heat necessary to run an expanded fats/oil/grease processing facility which will yield the city an extra $200,000 in usage fees a year. The fuel cell, which uses chemistry rather than combustion to produce electricity and heat, will eliminate one ton of nitrogen oxides, three tons of sulfur dioxide and 948 tons of greenhouse gas emissions from the local environment every year. The facility is an important part of the city’s goal of using clean, renewable power sources to generate 20 percent of the city’s power by 2010.

• Fairfield has saved more than $1 million on its energy bills the past two years thanks to energy efficiency improvements at two-dozen municipal buildings and school buildings, as well as the town’s wastewater plant. The work has been done through a Performance Contract with an energy services company which guarantees the town $7.5 million in energy savings over an eight-year period. By mid-2004, the wastewater facility will be generating more than $500,000 of electricity a year using such alternative power sources as fuel cells, solar panels and methane gas.

• New Haven, in an effort to reduce vehicle emissions, is running all of the city’s diesel vehicles on ‘clean’ ultra low-sulfur fuel and has installed a natural gas fuel station that can service up to 30 vehicles. Hundreds of city residents are also taking advantage of a Yale University program that provides employees with $25,000 towards the purchase of homes that are within walking distance of the university campus. (Yale was honored by EPA in October as one of 14 Connecticut employers on the agency’s list of Best Workplaces for Commuters.)

From land use, to transportation to building construction, local governments have major influence and control over energy consumption patterns in this country. That’s why the examples above are so important. In addition to providing immediate tangible benefits, they serve as models that other communities can replicate.

Robert W. Varney is regional administrator of EPA's New England Office.