Senate lawmakers on Monday voted to give the state’s energy policy arm the authority to order utilities to purchase as much as 50 percent more clean energy in an ongoing competitive bidding process.
If approved by the House, the move could mean that a greater number of wind, fuel cell and anaerobic digestion projects get built in the coming years. The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) is expected to announce winners of a competitive clean-energy RFP as early as next month.
As written, DEEP could have selected projects that would amount to 4 percent of Connecticut’s annual electricity load — the amount of electricity distributed by utilities.
But in amending Senate Bill 9, a wide-ranging piece of energy legislation that drew protest from some environmental groups over some of its provisions, senators on Monday said the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) could select as much as 6 percent.
The fuel cell industry had pushed for the amendment, hoping it would increase their odds at finding buyers for their power. Wind generation will be limited to no more than 3 percent of electric load.
The senate approved the amended bill by a vote of 29-3.
In a tweet around noon Tuesday, Danbury’s FuelCell Energy said:Â “The passage of SB9 will greatly bolster CT’s home-grown #fuelcell industry and provide in-state benefits for CT residents including tax revenue, job creation, enhancement of local power reliability and resiliency and urban brownfield redevelopment.”
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