The Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources (OER) has been traveling around Rhode Island to interview recipients of the Erika Niedowski Electric Bike Rebate Program, which offers standard and income-qualified rebates for electric bikes. These bikes offer enhanced speed and distance compared to conventional bikes while still providing exercise and the joy of biking.

Kent Kreutler, a retired resident of Charlestown, Rhode Island, is thoroughly enjoying his new Aventon electric bike. After purchasing the bike for $1,800, he was delighted to receive a $1,000 rebate provided by OER, which is available to income-eligible residents.

"Electric bikes allow you to go further and faster, which makes them a viable form of transportation for getting around town," said Kent.

He decided to invest in the Aventon Pace 500 Version 2, a class 3 electric bike capable of reaching speeds up to 28 miles per hour. The online purchase and application process were seamless, and Kent picked up his bike at Best Buy, ready to hit the road.

To his surprise, Kent’s electric bike quickly became his preferred mode of transportation for visiting friends, exploring the coastline, and running errands efficiently. By choosing the e-bike over his car, Kent not only saved significantly on gas costs but also reduced his carbon footprint, contributing to a cleaner and greener Rhode Island.

Kent has had his e-bike for over 8 months and values the motor of his electric bike, which effortlessly assists him up inclines, making Rhode Island's hilly terrain easy to tackle. He has also equipped his e-bike with various accessories, including a bike rack and a back light.

Maintenance for Kent's e-bike is simple. Apart from routine chain oiling, the only additional task is charging the battery after each outing, which typically takes two hours. The e-bike's easy upkeep makes it an appealing choice for everyday transportation.

"Every time I go out, it's a memorable experience," said Kent.

Kent encourages traditional bike riders to apply for the e-bike rebate. He emphasizes the program's smooth application process and affordability for income-eligible residents. Kent's journey is a testament to the program's success in empowering individuals to make sustainable transportation choices, fostering a cleaner and more vibrant Rhode Island.

To learn more about rebates for e-bike visit: drive.ri.gov/ebike

To view more of Kent’s favorite destinations, visit his webpage: https://www.keywebstop.com/photos/environs.shtml

Greg Ohadoma joined OER recently as our Energy Justice Manger responsible for ensuring OER programs are equitable, accessible and inclusive. We are thrilled to welcome him to our team and asked him to introduce himself to our readers.

Please tell us about your background?

I have experience in both energy policy and outreach. Before joining the office, I worked with the Northeast Clean Energy Council, Green Energy Consumers Alliance, RISE Engineering and have interned with Senator Sheldon Whitehouse.

What led you to work at OER?



In 2016, I was fortunate enough to work as an intern with OER and thoroughly enjoyed my time here. Working with the office parked my interest in clean energy policy and programs. I went on to work at various roles in the clean energy industry. When I saw an opportunity open up at OER to work in Energy Justice, something that’s very personal to me, I couldn’t pass it up.

What do you see as the biggest opportunity for Rhode Island in adopting clean energy?



In my opinion, the biggest opportunity for Rhode Island in adopting clean energy is its size. We not only have the opportunity to be leaders, but also to set the example for the rest of the country to follow.

Name: Gregory Ohadoma

Job Title: Energy Justice Manager

Hometown: Norwalk, CT

Favorite Food: Pizza

Favorite hobby and/or sport: Music production & football

Ideal Vacation: A cruise around the Mediterranean

The Newport Wastewater Treatment Facility (WWTF) is located along the J.T. Connell Highway, about 1,000 feet inland from the Newport coast. The Newport facility serves 41,600 customers and treats an average of 8.4 million gallons of wastewater per day. Newport’s system also treats stormwater runoff during rain events with a capacity up to 19.7 million gallons per day.

The Newport WWTF recently completed a renewable energy project. It installed four roof mounted solar systems, two carports, and one ground mounted solar farm. All these systems were interconnected in 2020.

The project totaled 790 solar panels with an estimated annual energy savings of 328,000 kWh annually. This is enough energy to power 55 homes in Rhode Island.

Clean energy projects are essential for meeting the State’s climate goals. Solar installations do not require any fossil fuel inputs, so they do not emit greenhouse gases or other harmful pollutants. The widespread adoption of solar will help to reduce the environmental burden of personal, industrial, and commercial processes which rely on electricity generated by the burning of fossil fuels.

The total cost of the seven PV projects before incentives was $1,861,962. Newport WWTF received a $227,286 Renewable Energy Fund grant. It also received funding from Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank (RIIB) from the Efficient Buildings Fund (EBF) and its Wastewater program. The DEM wastewater department helps to regulate the Newport WWTF.

The town of West Warwick is home to about 29,000 residents and ranks 10^th in population out of 39 cities and towns in Rhode Island. West Warwick is also home to the Echo Valley Apartment Complex, which provides affordable housing to about 100 families.

Echo Valley recently completed a 426 kW rooftop community solar project, which is now interconnected and serving  residents of the complex and the surrounding community. This solar system is expected to produce over 581,000 kWh annually, which is equivalent to the amount of electricity needed to power about 100 homes in RI. This solar project became operational in August 2020, and is 100 percent subscribed.

This community solar project is a part of the Community Remote Distributed Generation (CRDG) program. This program allows a power management company to pass the monetary value of renewable electricity generated by the solar array  onto its subscribers in the form of bill credits on their monthly  electric bill. In addition, qualifying Low to Moderate Income (LMI) subscribers may receive a rebate up to $500. This money can  be used to provide further relief to LMI customers beyond the savings generated by the community solar project.

This is the first community solar array for an affordable housing complex in Rhode Island. Community solar projects allow Rhode Island residents to share the benefits of solar power, even if they cannot install solar panels on their roof or property. This project and other community solar projects can be found by visiting the RI Community Solar Marketplace, at https://risolarmarketplace.com/all-projects/. 

"PowerMarket is incredibly proud of its role in subscribing the low-income residents of the Echo Valley Apartments to this community solar project. This is a realization of our goal to bring guaranteed savings to low-income communities through local, renewable energy. We are eager to take the lessons learned and experiences acquired here to ensure the successful inclusion of low-income residents in community solar programs nationally," said Jason Kaplan, COO at PowerMarket.

Danielle Jameson joined OER in December 2022 as the climate change programs and policy manager. We are thrilled to have her on our team and asked her to introduce herself to our readers.

Please share with us your information about your background.

I graduated from the University at Buffalo with a BS in Environmental Science. I started with the National Park Service at a National Recreation Area in Brooklyn, New York, leading an urban camping program. I then joined the Peace Corps in Peru and worked together with local water committees, helping to provide them the information and resources they needed to supply potable water to their communities. I continued my studies at Tufts University where I earned a master's degree in urban environmental policy and planning. My research focused on climate change adaption in unique environments such as small islands and salt marshes.

Describe what led you to work at OER?

Upon graduating I found myself working at the Environmental Protection Agency managing Brownfields grants. While a great job and a noble cause, I wanted to work more specifically on climate change. This opportunity with OER allowed me to put my schooling into practice while working in an area I am passionate about. 

What do you see as the biggest opportunity for Rhode Island in adopting clean energy?

The biggest opportunity for clean energy is rebuilding the energy system based on equity and justice. We need to be sure that as we transition to clean energy, we are prioritizing the needs and listening to the voices of minority and frontline communities.

Name: Danielle Jameson

Job Title: Climate Change Programs and Policy Manager

Hometown: Queens, NY

Favorite Food: Ravioli

Favorite hobby and/or sport: reading, touring cities, hanging out with friends and family, painting 

Ideal Vacation: Exploring any new place!

A cause or charity that’s important to me: In addition to environmental and climate justice, I am also passionate about advocating for prison reform and immigrant rights. 

Earlier this year, Real Jobs RI launched the first-of-its-kind Rhode Island solar sales training course to prepare students for their certification exam and for a future working in the growing clean energy market. Real Jobs RI, a program of the Department of Labor and Training, ensures that Rhode Island employers have the talent they need to compete and grow by providing targeted education and skills training. This class helped to feed a pipeline of trained electricians to meet our state's future solar needs and will contribute to meeting the Governor's goal of 20,000 clean energy jobs by 2020.

Gail Scanlon, project administrator for Sunwatt Solar, a solar installation company, based in Pawtucket, attended the training from February 26 to March 2 and we recently checked in with her for a career update.

Tell us about what you do at Sunwatt Solar.
Sunwatt is a small company and we all pitch in and perform whatever tasks need doing. I’ve worked on everything from creating brochures and banners to co-teaching a class in solar technology to high-school students. My main responsibilities as project administrator are assembling all the bits and bobs that constitute the “paper side” of a project. I prepare and submit the required documentation for interconnection approval, permitting, and installation–then assemble the completion documents after the install to get the system ready to be energized. Every project is a little different–so flexibility is key. We install in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, so I work with multiple utilities, state and federal agencies and municipalities.

How did you find your way into this field?
I came to the field serendipitously. When I moved back to Rhode Island in 2013, a friend who was getting a new company off the ground offered me a job. It turned out to be a solar company, and I must say being part of the renewable energy industry has proved to be an exciting and rewarding career move.

What opportunities are available in the local solar industry?
Solar PV is a tech heavy environment, but it is not all electricians and engineers. Opportunities are available in many disciplines. As front liners, it is critical that solar has well-trained, well-informed sales consultants. Experienced designers and installers are key, but also project managers/administrators, marketing mavens, and legal experts to keep legislation moving in favor of renewable energy. If you don’t have a technical background, I recommend getting started in an area that aligns with your previous experience. It could be answering phones, lead generation, financial experience or outreach.

What advice do you have for others who are looking to get their start in the growing solar industry?
I would encourage everyone interested in solar to take the Real Jobs RI course. It provides a comprehensive overview of the industry, solar basics, system design and peculiarities specific to installing solar in Rhode Island. I am a hands-on learner, so I enjoyed the system design worksheet exercises. Not surprisingly, I found the classes on actual electricity and tie-in to service panels and fuse sizes the most challenging. The enormous benefit of technicians and sales consultants attending together is each gain valuable insight as to how their side of the project informs the other. The future is bright, batteries and remote community net-metering are on their way – all you need is sun!

The next Real Jobs RI solar training begins in the fall. Stay tuned to this newsletter and the Office of Energy Resources calendar for upcoming training dates when they are announced.

As more homes and businesses install renewable energy projects, communities will generate more of their own local power via solar and wind, potentially reducing demand on the electrical grid. This could mean less need to build poles, wires, and grid infrastructure, saving millions of dollars in costs.

To test this concept, the Office of Energy Resources ran a pilot project in the Rhode Island towns of Tiverton and Little Compton to understand how solar power could mitigate the need to build costly utility infrastructure to meet growing energy demand.

OER launched Solarize campaigns in the two towns which offered competitive tiered pricing to promote the adoption of solar while driving down the costs for all participants. Extra incentives were available to those who installed westward-facing solar panels to generate more electricity at a critical time of peak demand. OER also awarded a grant to a larger “tracking” solar project that changes orientation throughout the day to maximize solar output.

OER worked with National Grid and consultants to evaluate the performance of the solar projects in the two towns over time. The study, which ended this year, revealed that the solar projects successfully increased production during periods of high electricity demand, however, maximum summer peaks still occurred late in the day relative to solar output. These findings are significant because they show that renewable energy can save money not only for system owners, but the entire electric grid system as well, lowering infrastructure costs for all ratepayers. In the future, technologies such as energy storage are expected to help supplement solar energy and extend its benefits after the sun sets.

See the full study here.

Located within the 4,000-acre George Washington Management Area, on the shores of Bowdish Reservoir, the 100-acre George Washington Memorial Camping Area is an overnight, primitive camping facility offering a multitude of opportunities to enjoy the outdoors. There are 45 well-spaced gravel sites suitable for tents, trailers and RVs.
  
If you are visiting the campground this season, you will notice that many of the lighting fixtures along the roadways have solar panels mounted on them. These lights operate entirely on 160W solar panels, independent of the power grid. They are extremely efficient too. For every one day of solar charging, the lights can operate for up to four days without a recharge.
  
The project was made possible by the Department of Environment Management in partnership with the Office of Energy Resources and is part of the State's Lead by Example initiative to reduce the state's energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. To learn more, visit our Lead by Example page.

If you have had a free home or business energy audit through National Grid, you have probably met someone from RISE Engineering. RISE serves as the utility’s lead vendor for various energy efficiency programs. Their energy specialists evaluate buildings to identify affordable energy-saving opportunities such as LED lighting solutions, heating and cooling system upgrades, insulation, air leakage sealing and other improvements that reduce energy costs. Their staff also helps utility customers take advantage of available financial incentives and financing options.

RISE offers much more than home energy audits – it provides energy efficiency services to government agencies, cities, towns, colleges and companies. RISE recently worked with the Rhode Island National Guard to replace old lighting fixtures with state-of-the-art LED fixtures in eight buildings. RISE also helped the City of Cranston replace 9,600 streetlights with LEDs and make other energy efficiency improvements to municipal buildings, schools and libraries.

Vincent Graziano, president of RISE, is a graduate of Bryant College and is proud to employ 325 people across New England and New York, including 157 Rhode Islanders. RISE also supports the next generation of energy professionals: it currently employs an undergraduate intern and five graduates from the University of Rhode Island Cooperative Extension’s Energy Fellows Program. Over the company’s 40-year track record, it has conducted thousands of energy retrofit projects of all types and sizes totaling over $1 billion in energy savings throughout the Northeast.