LINCOLN – The Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank has closed on $6.3 million in financing for energy efficiency upgrades at Northern Elementary School, the infrastructure bank announced Sept. 22.
The financing includes $5.62 million through the bank’s Clean Energy Fund and a $700,000 Energy Efficiency Revolving Loan Fund loan at 0% interest. The latter includes $140,000 in principal forgiveness.
The project will replace or upgrade heating, ventilation and other building systems at the school, including high-efficiency condensing boilers, unit ventilators, heat pump water heaters and a gymnasium air-handling unit.
Other work includes installing heat-timer controls, kitchen hood exhaust controls, hot-water pump retrofits, lighting occupancy and photocell sensors, and a building-wide energy management control system.
The energy-conservation measures are expected to save about 78,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity and 3,750 therms of natural gas annually, according to the infrastructure bank.
“Upgrading heating, ventilation, and energy management systems at Northern Elementary School is a smart investment,” Lincoln Town Administrator Philip Gould said in a statement. “We are able to execute these comprehensive improvements in a cost-effective manner that will save taxpayer dollars in the long run through energy cost savings.”
The financing builds on the infrastructure bank’s work with the town and Lincoln Public School District on energy efficiency improvements at the district’s public schools.
The R.I. School Building Authority also partnered on the project.
“Projects like this one at Northern Elementary demonstrate the power of state and local collaboration to transform schools into energy efficient learning environments,” said Mario Carreño, chief operating officer of the School Building Authority.
Matthew McNulty is a PBN staff writer. He can be reached at McNulty@PBN.com or on X at @MattMcNultyNYC.
