R.I.
Energy Fund has $6M Available for Renewables
By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI.org News
staff
PROVIDENCE — There’s some
positive news at the troubled Economic Development Corporation (EDC), at
least for its Renewable Energy Fund.
Some $6.5 million is now
available in the Renewable
Energy Fund (REF) to
finance renewable energy and green technology projects. The Office of Energy
Resources, the EDC and Gov. Lincoln Chafee’s office will determine how the
money will be invested.
Residential and municipal groups are expected to be
involved in determining the qualifications needed to apply for grants and
loans. Entities can also apply to the REF on an ongoing basis.
“We have rules and
regulations as to how this money goes out,” said EDC finance manager Earl
Queenan Jr. to the agency’s board of directors at a July 23 meeting. Queenan
has been running the REF with Hannah Morini, the renewable energy program
manager, since former director Julian Dash departed in June.
The Renewable Energy Fund
shifted from the Office of Energy Resources to the EDC in 2008. The fund has
awarded $12.6 million for projects such as the offshore zoning plan known as
the Ocean SAMP ($3.2 million), the Toray Plastics Inc. solar array ($750,000)
and a wind turbine at the Safe Way Auto Center in Bristol ($62,500). About 90
percent of the funds have been awarded as grants. That money has leveraged $41
million in additional capitol for REF projects.
Queenan said $5 million has
come into the fund since June 20, most from Narragansett Electric. The payment,
called an alternative compliance payment, or ACP, is money paid by electric
suppliers to the EDC to comply with alternative energy benchmarks. A fee
charged to electricity customers has delivered $8.8 million to the renewable
fund. The charge delivers between $200,000 and $225,000 to the REF each month.
“As you can see, money is not
a problem (for the REF),” Chafee said after the meeting. “Making a good use of
it is our goal.”
Here are top 10 recipients of
grants and loans from the REF since 2008:
·
Ocean SAMP, $3.2
million, research;
·
Toray Plastics,
$750,000, solar array;
·
United Natural Foods
Inc., $700,000, solar array;
·
West Broadway
Neighborhood Association, $520,000, solar;
·
PCS Utilidata,
$500,000, loan;
·
Arpin Van Lines,
$487,940, loan and grant;
·
East Bay Energy
Consortium, $435,000, wind and energy efficiency;
·
Town of Portsmouth,
$400,000, loan for wind energy;
·
City of Providence,
$266,960, recoverable grant;
·
Tomorrow Biofuels,
$250,000.