State officials are in the final stages of overhauling Rhode Island’s multimillion-dollar Renewable Energy Development Fund.
The fund receives about $200,000 per month from an electric-bill surcharge. A law enacted last summer moved responsibility for the fund from the R.I. Office of Energy Resources to the R.I. Economic Development Corporation.
In the past the fund had been used to subsidize residential and other solar-power installations, but that came to a halt when Gov. Donald L. Carcieri turned his focus to offshore wind in 2006. Larry Berman, a spokesman for House Majority Leader Gordon Fox, said lawmakers gave EDC jurisdiction over the fund because they see renewable energy as an economic-development opportunity. EDC also has experience managing other competitive grant programs.
The new law also allotted some of the fund’s resources to two new programs for subsidizing the development of renewable energy projects by municipalities and affordable housing nonprofits. The law mandates that at least $1 million and $200,000, respectively, be spent on such projects annually. EDC has discretion for dispersing the rest of the money, which can be provided as grants or loans.
Under draft regulations released by EDC, Kaplan would have authority to approve any proposal for $50,000 or less. Projects that would cost more must also be approved by EDC’s board of directors.
The rules also stipulate that no project will be granted more than $750,000 and that recipients are ineligible for repeat funding. For projects that would cost more than $250,000, preference will be given to those that spread the costs out over three years or more, the draft rules say.
There is currently $4.1 million in the renewable fund, according to EDC. Although $3.2 million of that money has been earmarked to fund the Ocean SAMP project, which is mapping the state’s coastal waters in anticipation of an offshore wind farm development, that money is supposed to be paid back by the wind farm’s developer.
In addition, EDC’s board last week appointed Julian Dash, former executive director of the nonprofit economic development organization Puente, as the organization’s renewable energy director. Dash will be responsible for overseeing the renewable fund and leading EDC’s push next year to grow the state’s renewable energy sector. The board also appointed Jennifer Paolino, a Brown University graduate, as the renewable fund’s program manager.
“We think [renewable energy] is an important sector that has real job-growth potential,” said EDC’s executive director, Saul Kaplan. “It fits in with our innovation strategy, and we’re going to make it a high priority as we head into the new year.”
EDC’s management of the fund thus far received a mostly positive response last week.
“We’re thrilled,” said Bob Chew, president of SolarWrights, a Bristol-based, solar-energy company. “I think EDC understands the value of solar, for ‘green’ jobs and its value to the economy.”
Bill Fischer, a spokesman for Allco Renewable Energy, which has proposed a number of projects through the state, said EDC should move quickly to start dispersing money in order for developers to start new projects.
However, both men said Rhode Island’s financial support for renewable energy projects pales in comparison to similar efforts in neighboring Massachusetts and Connecticut, and argued that will hinder the sector’s development here.
“It’s the hard reality that there’s probably not a coal-fired electric power plant in this country that didn’t receive some sort of subsidy,” Fisher said. “And the reality is, if we’re really committed to weaning ourselves off of our dependence on oil, we’re going to have to support renewable projects, and it has to be more than talk.”
Abigail Anthony, a member of the Jamestown Wind Energy Committee, which is exploring a wind development on Aquidneck Island, said the committee’s application for research funding was acted on quickly and comprehensively after EDC took control of the fund.
However, some concerns about the draft rules were raised by the Conservation Law Foundation.
Jerry Elmer, a staff attorney in the foundation’s Rhode Island office, argued that it is a mistake for the rules to emphasize projects’ cost-effectiveness, because the law specifically mandates the development of a variety of renewable energy sources.
“EDC is obligated to fund multiple diverse sources, and not merely the least expensive one,” Elmer wrote in a letter to EDC. “That is the very reason that the renewable energy fund was created,” he added.
Kaplan said EDC will be open to various sources of alternative energy. “The idea is to catalyze renewable energy projects, and we ought to make sure we’re looking across all viable platforms,” he said.
Elmer also noted that the law requires EDC to provide a long-term strategic plan for use of the renewable energy fund, and said it was difficult to judge the rules’ effectiveness without the plan in place. Kaplan said EDC will provide a mandatory five-year plan for the fund’s use before the Jan. 1 deadline set by law. •
