The Stop & Shop Supermarket Co. announced a special dedication of a 400-kilowatt (kW) fuel cell at its store in East Torrington, Conn.

The fuel cell was supported with a grant from the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund’s On-Site Renewable Distributed Generation Program and is the first fuel cell used by the Stop & Shop Supermarket Co. It is expected to generate more than 90 percent of the store’s electrical energy.

Since the fuel cell was commissioned in June 2010, it has produced more than 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 electricity and natural gas utility bills for the store by roughly 50 percent.

“The store will not only benefit from electricity produced by the fuel cell but will also benefit from the fuel cell’s waste heat, which will be used for heating, cooling and refrigeration,” said Dale Hedman, acting president of the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund.

Stop & Shop anticipates it will prevent the release of more than 523 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually. The annual nitrogen oxide emissions reduction will be equivalent to removing 88 cars from roadways. Designed to operate in water-balance, with no consumption or discharge of water under normal operations, the fuel cell at the Torrington Stop & Shop will save 3.5 million gallons of water compared to central utility generated electricity.

“Stop & Shop did an outstanding job integrating this fuel cell into its new, energy-efficient supermarket in Torrington and maximizing the energy attributes of the fuel cell,” Hedman said.