First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and consultant Mark Robbins stood near New Canaan Town Hall during an early phase of the energy initiative, when solar panels were first installed on the roof. Since then, three other town buildings have solar systems and two town structures have combined heat and power units.

NEW CANAAN — After hearing on Tuesday that the town has already saved money with the implementation of combined heat and power (CHP) plants, the selectmen approved $355,025 for the installation of a CHP unit at Town Hall.

“Anecdotally, we have not had to turn on the heat at the wastewater treatment facility this year, we’ve been running completely off the CHP units for heat,” Joe Zagarenski, senior engineer in the Department of Public Works, told the selectmen.

The 35-kilowatt combined heat and power unit will be the same size and type as those at the wastewater treatment facility and the highway garage, which were installed this past spring. As part of a town energy initiative, the CHP units are used to create heat and electricity concurrently from a single source of energy.

One CHP’s environmental footprint is equal to taking 25 cars off of the road as well as saving the municipality money, Mark Robbins, president of MHR Development, said at a prior meeting.

The selectmen approved two contracts for the Town Hall project. The first was worth $322,750, including a $30,000 contingency fee with Aegis Energy for the unit that will be installed in the Town Hall boiler room.

The second contract is with MHR Development to provide oversight and construction administrative services for a cost of $29,275, with an added contingency of $3,000, totaling a sum of $32,275

“Electric and heat savings generated by this project are estimated by MHR Development to be between $35,000 to $40,000 a year,” Zagarenski said.

Selectman Nick Williams said it was a “great thing for the town.” He and First Selectman Kevin Moynihan voted in favor for the project. Selectman Kathleen Corbet was not present.

Robbins addressed the town’s energy initiative, which includes solar panel installations on several town buildings and the CHP units.

After the meeting, Robbins told Hearst that both CHP and solar helps the town be “environmentally sustainable,” while “economically efficient,” since less energy is wasted when it is generated at the point of consumption. In addition, the town benefits from net metering, which means excess power generation can be given to the grid for credits from Eversource.

Measures such as generating energy by CHP’s and solar paneling systems “reduce pressure on the overtaxed electrical grid, which will only increase” and “decrease the dependence and strain on the electrical grid.”

Moynihan has said he hopes that a CHP will also be installed at Lapham Community Center to cover the building’s needs and nearby field lights. However, Eversource does not yet supply gas to the center, Robbins said.

CHP’s are considered less wasteful sources of heat, per Robbins.

The energy source for the CHP’s will be natural gas, “which has been around for hundreds of years,” Moynihan said. Aegis is the “leading” installer of CHP’s, he added. “They’ve got over 1,000 units in operation in the northeast.”

The town is still using solar panels on four municipal buildings including Town Hall, the Waveny Park pool building, the Nature Center animal building and the highway garage.

Solar panel systems have also been installed on the three elementary schools and above the cafeteria on Saxe Middle School. Robbins expects solar to be installed on New Canaan High School in 2022, since a new roof was completed on the building this past fall.

The town is also evaluating if solar could be put on the Playhouse roof and Saxe’s garage, which houses mowers and other town equipment. Both of those projects are “relatively small and almost residential in size,” Robbins said.

If solar panels were installed on the Playhouse roof, the town would use the power to support the Town Hall Annex, since there will be a tenant in the town-owned building, Robbins said. The solar panels will not be visible to Elm Street, since the 1923 building has a parapet, or low wall projecting from the roof, that hides the features, he explained.