On the edge of a quiet, wooded neighborhood in West Hartford, Conn., on April 18, executives at Legrand North America’s headquarters switched on a 500-kW fuel-cell array outside its decade-old manufacturing facility.
“The fuel-cell [servers] deliver 500 kilowatts of power in a grid-parallel system that produces 50% less CO2 than the U.S. grid, virtually smog-free [and] utilizing no water,” says Ravi Ramanathan, general manager of the 180,000-sq-ft Wiremold manufacturing plant, which produces cable- and wire-management products.