NEW CANAAN — The town has confirmed that it will be continuing its progress towards incorporating more energy efficient projects, including adding mini power plants, but admitted that hopes of the West School receiving such a plant were dim and that future solar energy deals may not be as fruitful as years past.
On Monday, the Selectmen’s Advisory Committee on Buildings and Infrastructure discussed installing more solar panels and setting up mini power plants called Combined Heat and Power (CHP’s).
One CHP’s environmental footprint is equal to taking 25 cars off of the road as well as saving the municipality money, town consultant Mark Robbins of MHR Development told the committee on July 12.
The town has already implemented solar energy on four municipal buildings and three elementary schools and placed CHP’s on two town buildings.
On the topic of solar energy deals, Robbins said the town may not see them as often because “material costs, as you can imagine, are up,” the consultant explained.
In addition to rising costs, the federal investment tax credit, enjoyed by investors, has been reduced from 30 percent to 26 percent, which means “material costs going up, tax credits going down,” and renewable energy credits “will be lower,” Robbins said.
The net of it is “we will be paying more for PPA’s,” or Purchased Power Agreements in the future, Robbins told the seven-member committee, which provides oversight for major capital expenditures related to town-owned buildings and infrastructure, including schools.
The school district entered into a PPA for the three elementary schools, which means a third-party developer owns and maintains the system at little or no cost to the schools. The schools receive electricity at a rate lower than local utility’s retail rate while the developer receives the income from these sales of electricity as well as any tax credits and other incentives generated from the system.
New Canaan currently has solar on Town Hall, the Waveny Park Pool building, the Nature Center animal building and the highway garage.
The next project to start on solar panel additions is at the New Canaan High School, which is now getting a new roof first.
Even though the district will not get as good a PPA deal, it will still save the Board of Education $100,000 beginning the first year, since it is “such a big building,” Robbins said. According to town studies, the school uses more energy than any other town building.
Saxe Middle School’s solar installation has “hit a bump in the road,” Jo-Ann Keating, director of finances and operations at New Canaan Public Schools, said.
The engineer the district hired has been waiting for four months to get information on the wind resistance calculations on the racking system that holds on the solar panels. Robbins said he has been putting pressure on the company and is “hopeful.”
Mini power plants
The town is planning on installing more mini power plants, or CHP’s, which are gas-fired engines that produce electricity at the point of consumption. This is said to conserve energy since it is not lost traveling along transmission lines.
Two CHP units have already been installed on town property, one by the highway garage and the other by the wastewater treatment plant.
First Selectman Kevin Moynihan has said he hopes to have four more CHP units installed in town including at Lapham Center, one outside Town Hall, one at Saxe Middle School and another at New Canaan High School.
The town benefits from having the CHP’s because they receive a discount from a utility since it reduces grid constraints and it produces heat and thermal energy for free heat, Robbins said.
The CHP consists of two components made by Yanmar in Japan — one on the outside of a building that measures 2.5 feet deep, 5 feet wide and 6 feet tall and one on the inside that includes racks with equipment on them that are anywhere from five to 10 feet tall.
The 35 kilowatt unit systems are similar to the ones the town has had operating for about four months. They are ”very robust, very well built and pretty quiet,” Robbins said.
Having the CHP installed in Town Hall would produce “at least 61 percent of electricity and would cost $270,000, saving $39,042 in electricity each year,” according to the consultant. That estimation would mean the town would be paid back for its investment in nearly seven years.
Gas is necessary for the CHP and the lines have not yet reached Town Hall. “I think gas is coming there this summer,” Robbins said.
“We are giving up on getting gas to West School,” Moynihan told the committee. Instead, the school will receive propane tanks for power.
Lapham does not have gas installed yet either, but it is expected to, when it does, the CHP is estimated to cost $268,180 and would save $25,204 a year, which Robbins calculated to be a 10.6 year payback period.
Robbins estimates the Lapham Center CHP would produce 140 percent of the energy load needed for the building. Therefore, the town could combine electric meters for Lapham and the sports field to allow the town to light the fields with that extra electricity.
The CHP project for the high school will be looked at by the district and is contingent on the outcomes of the solar project, Keating said. She expects to have an estimate close to the 2022-23 budget talks.
The YMCA and the library are also considering CHP systems, Moynihan disclosed.
