Tucked behind a half-filled student parking lot, partially obscured by chain-link fencing, acres of solar panels are quietly powering a new future for the University of Rhode Island.
The solar system is part of a three-property project spanning 267 acres in South Kingstown and West Greenwich, developed jointly by URI, South Kingstown and Narragansett. Once completed, the entire project, part of National Grid Rhode Island’s virtual net-metering program, is estimated to deliver 46 megawatts of direct current to the grid each year – among the largest solar projects in New England, according to URI.
At the same time, the project will give the communities credit on their electricity bills equal to annual savings of $1.2 million for URI, $200,000 for South Kingstown and $95,000 for Narragansett, officials said.
But unlike many of the utility-scale solar arrays cropping up in the state, the South Kingstown Solar Consortium prioritized already disturbed properties over pristine farm and forests. Twenty-eight of the 43 acres in South Kingstown were former landfill sites, unused and unfarmable.
As controversy heats up over solar sprawl, David Lamb, URI assistant director of facilities services and utilities, said the project is the best of both worlds – development of clean energy that helps the state reduce its reliance on fossil fuels without sacrificing the carbon absorption and wildlife habitat benefits of trees.
That was the intent when URI and the towns issued a request for proposals for the project, Lamb said. As a higher education institution with a focus on farming and environmentalism, it was only logical for URI to limit the loss of forest and farmland for its project, he explained.
Kearsarge Energy, a Boston-based company that developed the South Kingstown solar arrays, also focuses much of its work on previously disturbed sites, said Andrew Bernstein, managing partner. A separate company, Energy Development Partners LLC, of Providence, was responsible for the portion of the project in West Greenwich.
Bernstein called the South Kingstown sites “perfect,” noting that the prior dump sites had already been capped and remediated, requiring minimal work and money to prepare the land for solar arrays. The cost and availability of land were among reasons why other commercial developers said they had not developed on landfill and Superfund sites.
The 235-acre property on a former gravel bank in West Greenwich, which once fully operational will produce about 36 megawatts, did require some clear-cutting – 10 acres, which Lamb called “minimal” compared with what other commercial solar developers had done.
And the output, which surpasses any other completed solar project in the state, offers a major contribution to the state’s renewable energy goals, simultaneously saving the partners money on their electricity bill.
“There’s really no downside,” Lamb said.
Nancy Lavin is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Lavin@PBN.com.