The Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources (OER) has renewed an initiative to encourage solar projects located on brownfields for the third year in a row.

Brownfields — former industrial or commercial sites where future use is affected by environmental contamination — are often ideal locations for renewable energy projects. OER has committed an additional $1 million in state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) proceeds to this program in addition to the $2 million allocated between 2019 and 2020.

This new round of funding will support development of carbon-free electric generating resources and is available through Rhode Island Commerce's Renewable Energy Fund effective May 19, 2021, until funds are exhausted. From 2019 to 2020, $2 million was awarded to 12 solar brownfield projects in Providence, Cranston, Bristol, Warren, Portsmouth, East Greenwich, East Providence, Smithfield, and South Kingstown. These projects totaled 25.12 megawatts in renewable energy capacity.

Applications may be found on the Renewable Energy Fund website: https://commerceri.com/financing/renewable-energy-fund/.

OER and DEM have announced the next funding rounds of the Agricultural Energy Grant Program. The program’s goal is to support, develop, and invest in clean energy projects in the agricultural sector across Rhode Island.

This program provides grant awards of up to $20,000 for eligible energy efficiency and renewable energy projects at RI agricultural operations. The current funding round is open now with applications due July 30th, 2021.

Application materials and more details may be found on this website: http://www.energy.ri.gov/policies-programs/programs-incentives/farms.php.

A second funding round application period will begin on August 1, with a due date of October 29th, 2021. For a more detailed look at the benefits of the Agricultural Energy Program, check out this video profile of Legend’s Creek Farm explaining their projects and the benefits it provided.

Rhode Island College (RIC) has installed two additional electric vehicle charging stations with support from OER’s Electrify RI incentive program. RIC now has eight charging stations in total, all utilizing previous state government incentive programs.

“The EV charging stations are being used every day,” said Jim Murphy, sustainability coordinator for Rhode Island College. “We get requests from students, faculty and staff to install more due to the increase of electric vehicle use. They serve as an example of Rhode Island College’s commitment to lowering its carbon footprint.”

Rhode Island College installed its first EV charging station in 2013 with support from OER. The eight ChargePoint stations, installed by DK Power, offer 16 EV charging ports. Combined, they collectively average 152 plug-ins per month and the average plug-in time is 2 hours and 58 minutes. To date, the EV charging stations have avoided 10,000 kilograms of greenhouse gas emissions, which is equivalent to planting 250 trees and growing them for 10 years.

The second round of the Energy Storage Photo Contest is here! OER’s competition aims to find photographs of energy storage projects throughout Rhode Island. The winning images chosen will receive a photo credit and be featured on the OER website and newsletter.

We are specifically looking for quality photos of installed energy storage systems. Examples include batteries for homes and businesses. Preference will be given to batteries that are charged from renewable energy resources. Common brands of batteries include Tesla, LG and SolarEdge. Other types of energy storage technologies will also be considered, including mechanical and thermal energy storage systems like flywheels, hot storage tanks, and compressed air systems. All projects must be located in Rhode Island.

Permission from the owner of battery is needed as well – please include this signed permission form with your submission. Please submit photos and required materials to Jacklyn.Olivieri@energy.ri.gov as an attachment. The contest will run from Friday, July 9, 2021, to Tuesday, August 31, 2021.

On a bittersweet note, Barbara Cesaro, OER’s Interdepartmental Project Manager, will be retiring at the end of July after 35 years of working in Rhode Island government. She has been with OER for the past 11 ½ years. We asked Barbara to reflect on her career, her fondest memories of state service, and what she plans to do in retirement.

Currently, my work has focused on transportation initiatives, RGGI and the DOE State Energy Program. I started my work at OER managing over $23M of DOE State Energy Program American Recovery Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds. One of those early projects, funded with the ARRA dollars was the installation of 50 electric vehicle charging stations throughout the state. I am currently working on Electrify Rhode Island – an electric vehicle charging station incentive program. The program seeks to make more charging stations accessible to RI drivers. As I reflect on my time at OER, it seems I have come full circle.

Read her full interview on our blog.