Energy/Pool: A Solution?

As I've said before, the Pool costs too much money... particularly in relation to energy. As well, America needs to begin finding alternative forms of energy... and we must begin to ween ourselves off of foreign oil/energy. And at a special meeting of the Energy Commission (6:45am) this morning, the EC took one step and began to address both questions.

Officially, the purpose of their meeting was to decide whether to recommend to the Council that the Town should grant 1/8 acre of land (adjacent to the pool) to a private company (UTC Technologies). The purpose of providing the land would be to provide UTC Technologies with land for them to install (free of charge to Cheshire property taxpayers) fuel cells. The purpose of the fuel cells would be to reduce the cost of energy at the pool. (I believe a second purpose would be to help grow the fuel cell industry... not exactly "clean" energy, but it's something I would call an "alternative" form of energy. Effectively, it's mini-power plant right there at the pool.)

The crux of the meeting was fairly simple. I believe the EC agrees on the first two points (costs at the pool & finding alternative forms of energy). So agreement on the first point is fairly easy... we need to try to reduce costs. But the second point is less clear. What exactly is an "alternative form of energy?"

Well, in my opinion, there are many alternative forms of energy. All of which have one common theme... they're all "emerging technologies." Some examples include:

1) photovoltaic arrays / solar panels
2) wind turbines
3) biomass (woodchips, I think)
4) methane (from garbage dumps)
5) hydro (ok... i know this isn't new, but I think there are new, less "intrusive" technologies)
6) microturbines
7) fuel cells...

to name a few. Some of these are considered "clean." Some may not be considered clean... but are probably less dirty than most forms that are commonly used today.

So that gets the EC to their next question of "what form do we choose?" And that was the main purpose of today's meeting.

Previously, the EC had ventured down the path of microturbines and fuel cells. And this meeting was intended to provide the Council with a recommendation for a way for the town to reduce costs at the pool. (Although I believe the formal recommendation deals with giving land to UTC... although it's basically the same thing.) And so the EC discussed the costs & benefits of microturbines and fuel cells.

The discussion compared an actual fuel cell proposal to a theoretical "industry-standard" microturbine. The discussion seemed good to me, but in the end... the discussion was still based on a hypothetical microturbine. And there was very appropriate concern about not getting "hard" numbers for such an important project. But the schools' facilities' manager joined the conversation at this point.

Over the past year, the schools have been investigating microturbines. And while the EC's discussion did not compare two actual proposals, the schools had already performed their due diligence on the contractor that had proposed installing microturbines at the schools. And the results were not good. That particular contractor (although more than one company sells microturbines) had left clients with headaches. Based on those comments, I concluded that microturbines were not the best option (at least with that contractor). And that the fuel cell proposal makes sense as a way to reduce the pool's costs.

The EC voted 6-1 to recommend the Council get involved with this fuel cell project in order to reduce costs at the pool.

A few add'l comments (and I'm dead tired and am about to hit the sack... I'm still fighting the tail end of a cold):

1) the cost to the town was described as "nominal." The premise here is that there are numerous gov't-sponsored incentives (i.e. - we already paid the taxes) and other reasons for people, other than Cheshire property taxpayers, to support this project. One such reason is that this is an emerging technology.

2) this project may include not only the pool, but the high school as well... so the BOE may get involved.

3) there is a deadline to make this project happen (May 31, I think). If we pass the deadline, then we miss the opportunity.

4) town staff who have responsibilities for energy are receptive, and even highly supportive, of this project.

That's it for now. I'm going to sleep. But I thought this was worth posting. I think this will be on the Council agenda next Tuesday, May 9, 7:30pm in Town Hall or you can check out the meeting on the Henry Chase channel on Cox 14!

Tim White
Town Council, liaison to the Energy Commission
TimWhite98@yahoo.com