Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) has selected three proposals to participate in a new shared clean energy facilities pilot program that was designed to make access to renewable power available to more state residents.

 In response to a Request for Proposals (RFP), DEEP selected two projects in Eversource Energy (Eversource) territory totaling 3.6 MW and one project in The United Illuminating Company (UI) territory that is 1.6 MW.

The three selected proposals are for solar facilities that met program requirements to offer power at a price under a cap of 17 cents/kWh and to subscribe low- to moderate-income customers to at least 20% of the output of the generation facility.  One project is located on a landfill, another project is located on a vacant industrial site, and the final project is on another vacant parcel that requires no tree clearing.

“These projects will help increase access to clean energy resources for those customers that cannot participate in rooftop solar programs and focuses on outreach to low- to moderate-income customers,” said DEEP Commissioner Robert Klee. “The proposal prices for power from these facilities came in under the price cap we established as part of this initiative – and they will be sited on land with limited development opportunities, such as a landfill.”

The projects selected are:

DEEP’s selection of these projects was authorized by Public Act 15-113, An Act Establishing a Shared Clean Energy Facility Pilot Program, as amended by Public Act 16-116, An Act Concerning the Shared Clean Energy Facility Pilot Program. The selected projects will now go to the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) for regulatory approval.

DEEP’s extensive evaluation process included an assessment of the delivered price of energy and renewable attributes, environmental considerations related to siting the clean energy resource, consumer protections beyond what DEEP mandated in the pilot program structure, project diversity to ensure DEEP learns best practices for shared clean energy in Connecticut through the pilot, and other factors outlined in the solicitation. DEEP will be submitting its Final Determination to PURA for review and approval in the coming weeks. DEEP will also be making recommendations on next steps for shared clean energy beyond the pilot program in the upcoming release of the Comprehensive Energy Strategy.  These recommendations will seek to strike a balance between increased access to clean energy, along with other program benefits, and the cost of the program to ratepayers.

DEEP was authorized to run a competitive solicitation for a shared clean energy facilities pilot program for no more than 6 MW, with 4 MW in Eversource territory and 2 MW in UI territory. After public meetings and accepting public comment, DEEP released its first solicitation on July 1, 2016 and received nineteen proposals on September 1, 2016. On February 1, 2017, DEEP notified bidders that it declined to accept any of these proposals because the prices were markedly higher than the average accepted bid price in the recent Small Scale RFP, subscribers under the proposals did not have significant participation in the shared clean energy facility, several sites had negative environmental impacts, and several proposals would result in a higher proportion of commercial and industrial subscribers over residential subscribers.

After further public meetings and comments, DEEP released its second solicitation on March 3, 2017 and received nine proposals on April 10, 2017.

DEEP has posted a Final Determination on the selection of projects for the shared clean energy pilot program.