Stop & Shop Fuel Cell Provides 95 Percent of Store's Power

The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company, based in Quincy, Mass., has announced a pilot installation of a new fuel cell in one of its stores in Torrington, Conn. The fuel cell is expected to generate about 95 percent of the store's electricity, according to the Boston Globe.

Stop & Shop operates nearly 400 supermarkets stores in the Northeastern U.S. For its first fuel cell installation, the company chose the 55,000-square-foot Stop & Shop in Torrington, which opened only last spring.

The fuel cell is a Power PureCell System Model 400 from UTC Power, a unit of United Technologies Corp. Since the fuel cell was commissioned in June of last year, it has produced over 1.7 million kilowatt-hours of electricity, accounting for 95 percent of the store's total electric energy requirements. This, coupled with the use of the thermal energy produced by the fuel cell, has reduced the total electric and natural gas utility bills for the store by roughly 50 percent, said the store in a statement.

Stop & Shop added that it received a grant from the Connecticut Clean Energy (News - Alert) Fund to help with the costs of its fuel cell efforts.

“The fuel cell technology is the latest step we've taken to ensure we're doing everything we can to lower our impact to the environment in each community we serve,” said Jihad Rizkallah, vice president of store planning for Stop & Shop.