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Jul 11 - McClatchy-Tribune Business News Formerly Knight
Ridder/Tribune Business News - Rob Varnon Connecticut Post,
Bridgeport
In a turnaround decades in the making, a Japanese corporation is backing a project to create a technologically advanced fuel-cell power plant inside one of the buildings of the old Bridgeport Brass Co. on Housatonic Avenue. "It's a $115 million project," said Robert Babcock, president of New York-based EPG. Through the Clean Energy Fund's Project 100, the state Legislature mandated that 100 megawatts of Connecticut's power must be generated from renewable or clean power sources by 2008. Under the project, approved companies get a 5.5-cent-per-kilowatt-hour premium over the regular sale price to create and sell power. EPG is partially bankrolled by Marubeni Corp., a general trading company from Japan with $75 billion in annual revenues, according to Babcock, also a vice president of Marubeni. Before it became an investment company dealing in a wide variety of industries, including energy, Marubeni purchased raw materials for Japanese manufacturers and marketed the finished product for them, he said. The Bridgeport project is exciting, Babcock said, because it will make an old factory useful again and could serve as a blueprint for future power projects in Fairfield County. One of the reasons EPG wants the project in Bridgeport is that it is difficult to find room to build new power plants in Fairfield County. It will be years before EPG starts producing power at Bridgeport Brass, Babcock said. The Connecticut Clean Energy Fund has to approve the plant, and then The United Illuminating Co. has to agree to purchase power from it. Finally, the Department of Public Utility Control must add its approval. If all goes as planned, Babcock said, the plant could be producing power by the end of 2008. Jon Angel, president of the commercial real estate firm Jon Angel Real Estate in Fairfield, said he thinks this is a great use for an old property. EPG will buy the 11 fuel cells from Danbury-based FuelCell Energy Inc., according to Babcock. And while EPG's new plant would not generate many jobs in Bridgeport -- a few engineering, security and maintenance employees would be all that are needed -- the project would help boost employment at FuelCell Energy's production plant in Danbury. FuelCell Energy would not confirm it is building the fuel cells for EPG. Stephen Eschbach, a FuelCell spokesman, said Monday his company plans to unveil later this month about 30 to 40 megawatts worth of fuel-cell projects to be built within Connecticut. He added FuelCell Energy has contracts with Marubeni for several large fuel-cell projects in Asia. EPG will be fighting to win a portion of the Project 100 contract. Charles Moret, a fund spokesman, said his organization recommended three projects for approval during the first round of bids, but a wind farm project was withdrawn. However, a 4-megawatt fuel cell project in Wallingford and a 15-megawatt biomass plant, which converts gases from refuse into energy, are moving forward. Moret said he is not sure how many companies will come forward for round two; the Clean Energy Fund reviewed 11 during the first round. Applications for the second round have to be in by next Monday. "I guess everybody is coming to the table," Moret said when he was told of EPG and Marubeni's bid. Moret said Marubeni is a large, well-known international company. The Clean Energy Fund expects to announce the projects it supports in November, Moret said. This is the second large fuel-cell project proposed for the city; Bridgeport Fuelcell Park wants to build a 10-megawatt facility off State Street. That project received a more-than-$500,000 loan from Project 100 to help cover predevelopment costs, including design and planning. Babcock said his project does not require seed money and EPG expects to be profitable because of the premium paid for producing electricity, as well as federal tax incentives. |
Fuel-cell project awaits approval in Bridgeport, Conn.