Preston - Since he started campaigning for office in 2009, Timothy Bowles has advocated the former Norwich Hospital site as ideal for a clean energy research and technology center that could provide power to other development there and provide good jobs for the region.

Now, as a freshman state legislator, a member of the General Assembly's Environment Committee and a Preston selectman, Bowles feels he is in a position to make his dream happen.

On Monday at the state Capitol, he will officially announce a new regional task force on the creation of a Clan Energy Center. Bowles will lead the task force of 12 members, to be named Monday, but this week he identified a few who have expressed willingness to serve.

Bowles said Preston Redevelopment Agency Chairman Sean Nugent; Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments Executive Director James Butler; state Sen. Art Linares, R-Westbrook; and Allyn Brown, owner of Maple Lane Farms in Preston, will be among the 12.

The task force will be asked to research various clean energy technologies - including solar, geothermal, wind and fuel cells - costs and financing to design and build, both private and public, partnerships with Connecticut universities and corporations and a potential site to house an energy generating center.

Although Bowles advocates the former Norwich Hospital as the ideal site, the task force will consider other potential sites as well. On Monday, however, he plans to show maps of the former hospital site in Preston - currently being marketed by the PRA as Preston Riverwalk - to show that the project is compatible with the PRA's own master plan of development for the property.

Bowles' concept would have the new energy center to provide power to other development - light industry, housing and other proposals - at the property.

He hopes the task force will complete its research and will have "a cohesive and comprehensive plan" for the project by this fall.

Nugent agreed Wednesday that the project would be compatible with future site development. The PRA is overseeing the environmental cleanup of the Preston part of the former hospital property and has an as-yet unidentified developer interested in at least part of it.

Nugent said that developer would not be identified until financing is secured and plans are put on the table.

Bowles started promoting the concept when he was running for Preston first selectman in 2009. Last fall, he was elected as the state representative in the 42nd District.

Bowles met with state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Commissioner Daniel C. Esty Monday to discuss the energy center and other issues affecting Preston.

"Representative Bowles did share with the commissioner his vision for a clean energy technology generation park at the Norwich Hospital site in Preston," DEEP spokesman Dennis Schain said.

"We are always pleased to see grass-roots and local efforts like this emerge as they play a key role in helping us achieve the goal of cheaper, cleaner, more reliable power for our state. We will be talking further with Representative Bowles and working together with him to assess what it will take to turn this vision into a reality and what type of support it would require from us."

c.bessette@theday.com