Rhode Island Is Leading The Charge On Renewable Energy

While Rhode Island may be the smallest of the fifty states, it has taken on an outsized role in development and use of renewable energy.

On August 30, 2017, the Narragansett Bay Commission (NBC), the largest wastewater treatment agency in Rhode Island, announced a deal that will allow it to obtain all of its power from renewable sources. NBC, which operates treatment plants in Providence and East Providence that serve 360,000 people in 10 local communities, signed an agreement with a company building large solar farms in Coventry and Richmond, Rhode Island to supply power over a twenty-five year period. The new solar arrays will complement NBC’s existing wind turbines — three in Coventry and three at its Fields Point facility on the Providence waterfront — and a 600-kilowatt biogas plant under construction at NBC’s Bucklin Point facility in East Providence. Over the next twenty-five years, NBC is expected to save $18 million and offset an estimated 110,092 metric tons in carbon emissions.

On August 9, 2017, Governor Gina Raimondo held a bill-signing ceremony for a number of renewable-energy bills passed by the General Assembly this year:  

• A ten year extension of Rhode Island’s successful Renewable Energy Growth program, which allows large commercial projects as well as small renewable energy producers — such as rooftop solar — to sell their energy to National Grid at a fixed price over a fixed-term (15 to 20 years).

• A provision that allows farms and open space protected land to use twenty percent of their property for renewable energy projects, while still keeping their reduced property tax status.  

• The establishment of a statewide solar application and permitting process for new projects to be used by all municipalities.

• The addition of schools, hospitals and all other nonprofits to the list of institutions that can qualify for the virtual net metering program, which allows institutions and groups to fund renewable energy projects by selling portions of a renewable energy system. Low and moderate income housing developments are expected to benefit from the expansion of the net-metering rules.

These developments follow on the heels of Deepwater Wind’s construction of a 30 megawatt wind farm off the coast of Block Island, which became the first offshore wind farm in the country to reach commercial operation in 2016.

Keough + Sweeney represents and counsels renewable energy, water, and wastewater clients in all aspects of the regulatory process before the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission and the Rhode Island Division of Public Utilities and Carriers. So please feel free to call us or visit Keough + Sweeney for questions regarding renewable energy projects in Rhode Island.