New Haven Fuel Cell Wrapped In Red Tape
 Developer Bruce Becker’s 360 State Street in downtown New Haven could be the first residential building to earn LEED Platinum Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. (Becker & Becker) |
Bruce Becker has tried to do the right thing. That may have been his mistake.
Becker is the developer of nearly completed 360 State Street, a 32-story, 500-unit apartment building in New Haven. The building, which will contain retail space and enclosed parking for 500 cars, is one of the largest residential buildings ever built in the state.
I have been following this project, in part to see if Becker is able to attain his goal of making it one of the state’s greenest buildings as well. He’s trying to make his the state’s first residential building to achieve LEED Platinum Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.
The state isn’t making it easy.
In addition to numerous other energy-saving technologies, Becker hopes to power the building with a 400-kilowatt fuel cell made by UTC Power of South Windsor. He has been promised a $900,000 grant from the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund to cover slightly more than half the cost of the power-generating device.
To pay for the rest, and to maintain the fuel cell, Becker in 2007 proposed an arrangement called “sub-metering,” meaning the building would have one “master meter” for United Illuminating, the local utility, and all the tenants would have individual “sub meters.” UI would support the project by buying excess power and providing additional power at times of peak demand. Or so the theory went.
This is done in New York and other some other states, but has only been allowed in Connecticut in limited areas, such as marinas and campgrounds. Without recounting a complex legal argument, the state Department of Public Utility Control turned him down in late 2008, saying current law didn’t allow it.
Early last year, Becker met with members of the Clean Energy Fund, who suggested another approach: State law does allow electric co-ops. The statute says in part that “cooperative, nonprofit, membership corporations may be organized … for the purpose of generating electric energy by means of … renewable energy resources.”
