Brownfields Grant To Help Build Solar Farm On Gravelly Road In SK

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, RI—The state is helping a private company build a solar farm on Gravelly Hill Road, the state Department of Environmental Management said. The Gravelly Hill Farm Solar Array will collect $306,000 to clean up the property, which was formerly a dump. The project is expected to create 40 construction jobs and two permanent jobs.

The DEM is giving the company $56,000 to assess and prepare the site plus $250,000 to cover the clean-up and redevelopment. Ultimately, the property will be a 3,200-kilowatt solar farm.

"Annually, energy credits offered to area municipalities will save $290,000," the DEM said. "The array also will produce energy for 610 homes and reduce as much greenhouse gas as would be reduced by removing 871 cars from the road."

The grant money, which is coming from the 2016 Green Economy Bond funds, goes to decontaminate polluted sites, known as brownfields, so they can be used again. The agency and the governor's office announced the latest round of Brownfields Remediation and Economic Development Fund Grant grants on Tuesday. Voters will be asked on Nov. 6 to approve another bond question which includes money for more brownfields grants. Question 3, the Green Economy and Clean Water Bonds, includes $4 million for brownfields.

The brownfields grants are unique, according to DEM spokesman Michael Healey.

"Most recipients of state brownfields grants are commercial entities," he said. "This makes brownfields grants unique among DEM’s grant programs." The typical DEM grant goes to communities and/or land trusts for recreation or open space. DEM also awards grants to cities and towns for wastewater treatment facilities. But brownfields grants usually go to private companies.

"Brownfields grants are about reclaiming, restoring, and repurposing," he said. "Public investments to help private entities clean up contaminated brownfield sites help unlock many other private investment dollars to transform these sites into neighborhood assets."

For example, he continued, "with $10 million from the 2014 and 2016 green bonds, DEM has capitalized 45 projects in communities across Rhode Island. The money has unlocked more than $630 million in other investment and spurred transformative projects such as expansion of the Ronald McDonald House for families undergoing cancer treatment, green and clean solar arrays around the state, urban farming initiatives, affordable housing, and the Westerly Education Center, which has quickly become a key pipeline supplying skilled workers for good jobs at Electric Boat."

In this round, 12 projects were selected. The others are in Cranston, Newport, Smithfield, Pawtucket and Providence.

Image via Shutterstock