R.I. seen as ‘emerging market’ for solar energy

SHINING EXAMPLE: Workers install solar panels at East Providence Forbes Street project, due for completion in 2017. / PBN FILE PHOTO/BRIAN MCDONALD
GREEN DEVELOPMENT LLC plans to employ about 500 workers both directly and through subcontractors to construct solar panel farms in Exeter and North Smithfield. The panels would be similar to the ones shown above. / PBN FILE PHOTO/BRIAN MCDONALD

Newport Solar got 28 new projects this year – 27 homes and one restaurant – as a result of the Rhode Island Renewable Energy Fund program for small-scale solar projects.
“It’s made me very busy,” said Newport Solar President Doug Sabetti, who has 30 years of construction experience and launched the specialty solar business in 2009.
“The funding pays for 25 percent of the installed cost of the project,” said Sabetti. “The past few years, there was no incentive in Rhode Island and my business was absolutely flat. I had three solar projects in 2010, two in 2011 and two in 2012.”
Several initiatives in the past couple of years are encouraging renewable energy projects, especially solar, to expand in the Ocean State.
So far this year, the Renewable Energy Fund has awarded more than $263,000 to solar-installation companies for the 25 percent share of eight small-scale solar projects, with the remaining 75 percent investment by the property owner, according to R.I. Economic Development Corporation spokesperson Melissa Czerwein.
In addition, the state has three other programs to encourage renewable energy projects, including commercial scale solar, pre-development loans and early-stage commercialization loans, said Czerwein.
“The state has made advancements on solar-energy development over the last two years with the launch of the distributive-generation-contracts program launched in 2011,” said Chris Kearns, chief of program development for the R.I. Office of Energy Resources.
“We’ve seen renewable energy projects proposed in 25 of the 39 cities and towns, and those are both private and public projects,” said Kearns “About 98 percent of those projects are solar, with a couple of wind-turbine projects.
Those projects are required to be operational in 18 months, starting with the first contract awards in December 2011. Under the distributive-generation program, the power is sold back to National Grid under a 15-year contract.
Some of the solar projects are larger-scale, including East Providence’s Forbes Street project, said Kearns. The East Providence project due for completion in November is a 13,000-panel solar farm.
“Because of programs like distributive generation and the adjustments we made to the Renewable Energy Fund through the legislature in 2012, we’re seeing an increase in solar activity in the state,” said Kearns.
“Before we restructured the Renewable Energy Fund program in 2012 to establish a residential program, we hadn’t had a residential program for several years in the state for solar to support small-scale solar development for homeowners, like we see in Connecticut and Massachusetts,” he said. “We started awarding funds for residential projects in 2013. “One of the requirements we have is a bundling of residential projects, so a contractor has to get three homeowners to commit to installations,” said Kearns. “We modeled that after a number of states because buying materials in bulk, you usually get a better price.”
Being next-door to Massachusetts, a national leader in renewable energy, often makes it hard for Rhode Island to avoid comparisons.
Nick Bullinger, chief operating officer of Nashville, Tenn.,-based Hecate Energy, co-developer of the East Providence Forbes Street solar project, along with Boston-based CME Energy, said Rhode Island’s solar policies are “well-thought out.”
“This is the first project we’ve done in Rhode Island and we intend to do more,” said Bullinger. “I think Rhode Island’s policy on distributive generation encourages renewable development by allowing long-term power contracts, which are important to the developer. In Massachusetts, the contracts can be more unpredictable
“When you’re building a power plant with a useful life of 25 years, it’s important for a developer to know you’re going to have a long-term revenue stream,” said Bullinger.
Transmission of power can be costly and Rhode Island’s distributive-generation program helps cut down those costs, he added.
“Distributive generation means your generation of power is closer to where the power is used by the consumer,” said Bullinger. “So that means, down the road, you’ll need fewer transmission-line upgrades. That may be hard to quantify without a complicated forecasting model over 20 years, but delaying or deferring new power lines is going to lower the cost of electricity.”
The East Providence Forbes Street solar project is constructed atop a former municipal landfill in the Riverside section of the city.
The three-megawatt capacity of the solar project could produce electricity for about 500 homes, although production varies according to sunlight, Bullinger said.
In addition to generating power, East Providence’s project will generate revenue for the city. It will bring in about $70,000 a year, including $40,000 in lease payments for 18 acres in the first phase, and approximately $30,000 a year as payment in lieu of taxes, said East Providence Director of Planning Jeanne Boyle. The taxes are on the tangible equipment, because the city owns the land. If the output exceeds estimates, the city could get up an additional $30,000 a year as a production bonus, said Boyle. The payments will come from Forbes Street Solar LLC, which is owned by the New York-based D.E. Shaw Group, said Bullinger.
Solar development in Rhode Island is attracting companies such as New Bedford, Mass.-based Beaumont Solar, but there’s still more to be done to widen the market in the Ocean State.
“There’s a more complicated system in Rhode Island,” said Beaumont Solar President CEO Phil Cavallo.
“With National Grid, if you’re an investor and they accept your project, you can sell power at a fixed rate for 15 years and that’s good,” said Cavallo.”But they have a fixed amount of kilowatts they’ll buy on an annual basis and there are more projects than there are kilowatts available.”
Beaumont Solar has built more than 150 projects in Massachusetts in the past seven years, and four in Rhode Island, said Cavallo.
“The main state difference is that in Massachusetts anyone can build a solar project and get renewable energy credits,” said Cavallo.
Massachusetts, and New Bedford in particular, has been spotlighting success in renewable energy development.
At a Sept. 4 press conference in New Bedford, Cavallo, New Bedford Mayor Jonathan F. Mitchell, and other city and state officials outlined developments, including a former contaminated brownfield site being turned into a two-acre solar farm that will generate a half-megawatt of solar power.
When a few current projects are completed, New Bedford will have exceeded the city’s 2011 goal of purchasing 10 megawatts of power from renewable sources, according to a press release from the city following the press conference. Ten megawatts is enough energy to power about 1,500 homes.
Mitchell said the city has adopted a long-term goal of purchasing 60 percent of its energy needs from solar sources, and current projects bring it to 43 percent of that goal.
“New Bedford is a great place for solar,” said Cavallo. “We had 11 employees when I came to the company seven years ago and now we have 35.”
Even so, Cavallo said he plans to increase Beaumont Solar’s projects in Rhode Island.
“We’re establishing a Rhode Island crew,” said Cavallo. “As a more open program is established, we want to be in the state so we’ll be able to build a lot more projects there. Rhode Island is an emerging market for solar.” •

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