Across the country, a growing number of major corporations, like Google and Amazon, are buying their own renewable energy. They’re not waiting for utilities to make the shift away from fossil fuels. Here in the Ocean State, the Narragansett Bay Commission is also moving in that direction to save money and reduce carbon emissions.
The Narragansett Bay Commission owns and operates the two largest wastewater treatment facilities in the state. Cleaning water is expensive, which is why the wastewater agency is aiming to run on 100 percent renewable energy within two years.
By doing that, the commission will “basically, stabilize electric rates for our users for 25 years to come,” said Tom Uva, the agency’s director of planning, policy and regulation.
NBC is already saving roughly $1.1 million a year in electricity with its existing wind turbines at its Field’s Point facility. It recently purchased two more wind turbines in Coventry and they’re working to buy a third. The agency also plans to build a biogas facility to capture methane from the human waste it treats to produce electricity.
“So we’re looking at a very diversified energy portfolio,” said Uva. “The biogas project would always be running because we are always treating sludge and generating methane gas. And that would run consistently throughout the year.”
Uva said that’ll help maintain reliability, because his facilities can’t miss a beat when it comes to treating water. The agency is in the final stages of securing a permit for that biogas facility through the state Department of Environmental Management.
Agency officials are planning to buy or produce more energy than they need to balance fluctuations dictated by weather. If a power system were to go down, then the agency would still get electricity from the regional grid.
“To me the major [reliability] risk is what happens if they invent something 10 years from now where we don’t need power from the grid anymore,” said Uva, “so then did we make a bad investment?”
But Uva thinks the agency is on the right path tapping into renewable energy and energy efficiency programs.
The commission has reduced its energy usage by more than 8 percent since 2003 through conserving energy alone. Uva said this year they are replacing all the facilities’ light bulbs with LED ones to further reduce the commission’s energy usage by roughly 6.3 percent.
Later this fall, officials will look into buying solar energy.
“And eventually we are going to get to a zero electric bill,” said Uva. “The other significant benefit is the reduction of our carbon footprint.”
Uva expects the agency to offset 20 metric tons of carbon emissions each year once it’s running on 100 percent renewables. He said that will help Rhode Island meet its ambitious goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Note: This post has been updated.
