A proposed fuel cell facility on a pair of vacant parcels at 784 Talcottville Road in Vernon has town officials pushing for more scrutiny before state regulators sign off. DE Vernon FC LLC wants to build 16 natural gas-fueled fuel cells generating a combined 4.975 megawatts on the site, and Vernon has asked the Connecticut Siting Council to hold a public hearing before any final decision is made.
The company filed its application, officially Petition No. 1723, with the Connecticut Siting Council, according to Patch. The proposed construction would span two vacant parcels totaling roughly 3.18 acres, though the fenced facility itself would occupy only about 0.66 acres of that footprint, per the same report. The project was selected in 2026 through the state's Shared Clean Energy Facility Program, Patch notes.
The Suffield petition, filed October 7 under the name DE Suffield FC LLC, is listed by the Connecticut Siting Council as a grid-side 4.975-megawatt facility at 2 Bennett Road.
Vernon Officials Demand Closer Look at Site Impacts
Vernon has asked the Siting Council to hold a public hearing on the Talcottville Road petition and to carefully review the proposal and consider conditions before construction moves forward.
Vernon Director of Developmental Services Shaun Gately, meanwhile, told Patch that the proposed use is permitted under the parcel's current zoning.
The Siting Council was scheduled to take up Vernon's hearing request at its November 12 meeting, the same day Patch reported the item had landed on the agenda. The evidence reviewed does not establish what the council ultimately decided on that request. State guidance on the process, laid out in the Siting Council's Citizens Guide to Siting Council Procedures, notes that a public hearing is not required by law for this type of declaratory-ruling petition, though the council may choose to hold one within 60 days of receiving it.
How the Power and Credits Would Flow
Per the petitions, Dispatch Energy said the three projects secured 20-year agreements with Eversource and the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection in 2025 through competitive bidding under Connecticut's Shared Clean Energy Facility Program. Under that arrangement, Eversource would buy and distribute the electricity generated at the sites while Dispatch Energy builds and maintains the facilities themselves, CT Insider reports. Eversource would also provide renewable energy credits to income-eligible homeowners and to people unable to install solar panels, per the same account.
Connecticut's Shared Clean Energy Facilities program includes a procurement process and subscriptions, according to the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
Bloom Energy Technology
Bloom Energy systems do not consume water during normal operation.
If approved, construction would begin in summer 2027 and take roughly six months, with electrical generation expected to start later that year, per the petitions cited by CT Insider. The Siting Council has until December 7 to act on the petitions, and state rules require it to deliver a final decision by April 6, 2027, barring extensions.
Bloom Energy manufactures solid oxide energy servers. Its technology has been used in a facility in Plainville, where a 2022 Connecticut Siting Council document described a customer-side 2-megawatt fuel cell installation at Americold Logistics.
