URI center highlights renewable energy options

The University of Rhode Island’s Outreach Center believes lack of information is one of the biggest hurdles keeping more Ocean State residents from considering renewable energy.
“We think the biggest challenge is access to information and resources and that people may not realize that renewables are actually a viable option for a home, small business or larger business,” said Kate Venturini, interim director of the URI Outreach Center, an arm of the R.I. Cooperative Extension and part of the College of the Environment and Life Sciences.
The most recent venue for the center to spread the word on options in solar, geothermal and wind energy was the outreach center’s one-day Renewable Energy School, held Aug. 16 on the URI campus in South Kingstown, which drew about 50 people.
URI energy fellows, who are students in varied academic disciplines and spend one year doing research and working on projects, collaborated with staff on organizing the Renewable Energy School and participating in the event.
“We engaged an interactive audience that had concrete questions to find out if renewable energy was right for them, and if so, how to get started,” said energy fellow Ethan Rix, who moderated a panel discussion.
Speakers included representatives from renewable energy companies, as well as from the R.I. Office of Energy Resources, the workshop’s co-host.
“We get a lot of energy from natural gas, but not much energy from nearby. Rhode Island has wind, tides and sun, so this is kind of a ‘go local’ view of energy,” said Venturini. “It can reduce the miles between us and where energy is coming from.
“Conservation and efficiency come first, but if people are in a position to use renewables, we’re looking at ways to harvest that energy,” she said. One option to make use of available energy and cut down on fossil fuels is with geothermal, said Joseph Fraioli, founder of EarthCoupler Renewables, a Little Compton-based company founded in 2007.
Geothermal heating and cooling systems make use of the relatively consistent temperature of the earth year-round by using an underground loop system, said Fraioli, a presenter at the Renewable Energy School.
“A geothermal system doesn’t make its own heat. In winter it collects heat from the ground and moves it into the home using an underground loop system,” he said. “In the summer it exchanges heat in the home with the cooler ground temperature using the underground loop system.”
The system uses a heat pump and inside the home, the heating and cooling use a traditional duct system.
One reason people may be less aware of geothermal energy is that it’s not visible, like solar panels, he said.
“That’s why I think the Renewable Energy School is definitely a good idea,” said Fraioli. “A lot of installations I do are for people with environmental interests who have done research, understand the technology and are convinced the financial models make them worthwhile,” he said. “I don’t think the average homeowner has much access to this information.”
Geothermal is a clean and sustainable technology that does have installation expenses to consider, but generally provides the homeowner with a return on the investment in seven or eight years, with savings on energy costs, he said. Those energy-savings costs continue for the long term, he said.
“Geothermal technology is three-to-five times more efficient than natural gas or other fossil fuels,” said Fraioli. “That efficiency translates into savings. “We want to educate people. If they have oil or propane as a heating source, with geothermal they can see operating costs decline upwards of 75 percent,” he said.
“If you combine two renewables – combining geothermal with solar photovoltaic – you can virtually eliminate the energy costs of a home,” said Fraioli.
“The renewable energy market for homeowners has gradually grown over the past two years in Rhode Island,” said Chris Kearns, chief of program development for the R.I. Office of Energy Resources, who was a speaker at the Renewable Energy School and reviewed state policy, programs and incentives.
“The audience was a mixture of homeowners and businesses wanting to learn about the available renewable energy incentives at the state and federal level,” said Kearns.
“The General Assembly amended the Renewable Energy Fund law in 2012 to require the establishment of a residential renewable energy program,” said Kearns. “That program launched in 2013 and will be in place for the next several years.
“The federal 30 percent investment tax credit for renewable energy projects is available to homeowners and businesses through the end of 2016,” said Kearns.
A new program, the Renewable Energy Growth law, passed by the General Assembly, is being developed, said Kearns. The incentive program is designed to finance the development, construction and operation of renewable energy distributed-generation projects.
“That was previously available for commercial use and for municipalities and has now been expanded to allow homeowners to participate,” said Kearns. “That program is being developed by National Grid and the Office of Energy Resources and is scheduled to launch in the spring of 2015.” •

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