(Corrected, Sept. 29)
PROVIDENCE – The R.I. Economic Development Corporation has awarded a grant and a loan totaling nearly a half-million dollars for two renewable energy projects, including one that involves nine Rhode Island municipalities and could lead to eight to 10 land-based wind turbines in Tiverton.
The EDC board approved a $335,000 grant for the East Bay Energy Consortium – made up of Bristol, Warren, Barrington, East Providence, Portsmouth, Little Compton, Tiverton, Middletown and Newport – to continue preliminary work on a “utility-scale community wind project.”
The grant comes from the multimillion-dollar Renewable Energy Development Fund.
Keith Stokes, EDC executive director, said it’s the first time this many cities and towns have collaborated on a proposal of this scale in order to eventually lower the municipalities’ energy costs.
“It’s rare and something I think we should encourage,” said Stokes.
Using an earlier EDC grant and funding from the communities themselves, the consortium has already identified the Tiverton Industrial Park as the best site on which to build the turbines.
In addition to the renewable energy grant, the Rhode Island Foundation is also chipping in $15,000.
The consortium envisions a $75 million, 20 to 25 megawatt project. EDC officials the East Bay group could possibly partner with a private developer that would finance the project with a power-purchase agreement with the communities.
The EDC also approved a $130,589 loan for a 38-kilowatt solar photovoltaic system slated for 1 Sims St., Providence, a building adjacent to the nonprofit arts organization Steel Yard in the city’s Valley neighborhood.
The building, which will feature 10 units of business incubator space, is owned by Milhaus LLC, a company controlled by Clay Rockefeller, one of the founders of the Steel Yard.
In addition to the EDC loan – which has a 10-year term at 2 percent interest – the $261,000 solar-power system will be financed by federal stimulus funding ($36,565), federal renewable energy tax credits ($67,384) and owner equity ($26,640).
An earlier version of this story gave an incorrect amount granted to the East Bay Energy Consortium and incorrectly stated the group also received a loan.
