And they will do it for a lot less than the electric company charges. The common council recently chose UTC Power, a unit of United Technologies, to install and maintain two fuel cells outside the school building, now under construction on Wilderman's Way.

UTC Power says the cells will save $1 million over conventional electric rates in the first five years.

"Look at your electric bill and compare it to two years ago. The fuel cells give us a stable base that won't be affected by the additional rate increases that are coming," said W. Lee Osborne, a Middletown architect who chairs the high school building committee. "The council members, by going this route, have looked beyond their two-year terms to save us money. It came from both sides of the aisle. In government, that's refreshing."

The fuel cells would provide heat for the pool and supplement the heat in other areas of the 250,000-square-foot building.

As recently as last spring, project officials were considering hiring an outside company to build and run a 4,000-square-foot power plant on the high school campus - at an upfront cost of about $4 million. The power plant idea was scrapped in favor of fuel cells.

The cost for the UTC venture would be $179,000 - after the city receives an expected $940,000 subsidy from the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund. The fund exists to encourage the use of alternative energy sources.

"It's a long way from a $4 million co-generation plant to a $179,000 investment," said council Majority Leader Thomas Serra. "And this is a qualified vendor."

The council on Sept. 14 chose UTC Power, based in South Windsor, over Northern Power System, with offices in Wallingford and Vermont.

Masonry work on the high school is set to start in mid-October; the $106.6 million project is slated to be finished in late summer 2008.