When Vito Buonomano saw the 2006 climate change documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” he felt compelled to act.
So much so that he upended his career to start a new business focused on renewable energy in Rhode Island.
“I knew there was going to be a push by the government to take these technologies and make them affordable,” Buonomano said.
A former respiratory therapist who also worked in communications, he went back to school, completing a series of national certificate programs in energy management. By 2009, Northeast Solar & Wind Power LLC was up and running, ready to get in on green energy business. And just as Buonomano predicted, demand for renewable energy has increased dramatically, as prices for the solar panels and other materials to make it happen have dropped.
As its name suggests, the company develops proposals for renewable energy installations – namely solar photovoltaic systems – on a variety of property types. The company’s employees serve primarily as sales representatives, although they also help with drafting proposals.
After evaluating the property, the company designs a solar array, including details on the financials – namely, the cost versus energy savings – and permitting process, before turning the actual buildout over to a contractor for engineering, production and construction.
While interest in solar energy is rapidly growing across the state, the business’s bread and butter comes from something even more basic: energy efficiency.
Working with National Grid contractors, Northeast Solar & Wind Power offers energy-efficiency solutions, including LED lightbulbs and heat pump systems as an alternative to furnaces and air conditioners, for all types of properties.
“Renewable energy doesn’t fit on every building, but everybody uses electricity,” Buonomano said. “We try to look at how they use it and improve it.”
It is only after energy-efficiency improvements are completed that his business even considers renewable energy. A majority of its solar panel clients to date have been farms, which under the state’s Renewable Energy Growth Program can enter into a 20-year feed-in tariff that compensates property owners for all solar electricity produced from their systems.
The compensation – which Buonomano estimated at $1,000 monthly for the duration of the 20-year agreement – can make a big difference for the state’s struggling agricultural community, he said.
But the solar boom has not come without resistance. Several rural towns in Rhode Island have pushed back on solar development, upset by the clear-cutting of trees required to install solar arrays, particularly on residential land.
Despite some controversy, Buonomano was optimistic for the future of solar energy in Rhode Island. In particular, he expects the state level efforts to incentivize solar canopies through a proposed addition to its fixed-price Renewable Energy Growth Program to create new projects for his business.
State and federal financial incentives for renewable energy are persuading more commercial property owners to consider it. Of course, the environmental factor doesn’t hurt.
“It has to make financial sense, but of course they feel good about what they’re doing for the planet, too,” Buonomano said.
OWNER: Vito Buonomano
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Renewable energy and energy management
LOCATION: 937 Smith St., Providence
EMPLOYEES: Four
YEAR ESTABLISHED: 2009
ANNUAL SALES: WND
Nancy Lavin is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Lavin@PBN.com.
