The V.I. Energy Office has awarded a total of $1.3 million in subgrants this summer as part of efforts to advance the territory's sustainable energy agenda.
Last week, VIEO unveiled a $500,000 Department of Energy subgrant to Metro Motors VI to enable domestic sales of electric vehicles as well as establish EV service centers across the territory.
Now, the agency has announced two additional subgrants to make up what it refers to as a “summer trifecta.”
The St. Joseph & St. Ann Catholic Churches have been selected to participate in a pilot program that places solar generation systems on the roofs of charitable institutions.
Under the Solar Congregations Pilot program, launched in late 2024, a 35kW roof-mounted solar system will be installed at each church with a $220,000 subgrant. The funds will also support the installation of Level 2 electric vehicle charging stations, which will be powered by the electricity generated by the solar systems, VIEO says.
The third subgrant announced by VIEO is aimed at renewing the push to allow small generators of renewable energy such as homes and businesses with rooftop solar systems, to feed power back into the grid. The Department of Interior has provided $540,000 to recapitalize the Water and Power Authority's VIEnergize division.
“The division was essentially shuttered in 2017, following the closing of the initial Net Energy Metering program,” the VIEO announcement says. The subgrant will allow for the relaunch of VIEnergize, which has already been staffed with a new Director. The hope is to begin addressing the “significant backlog” of solar interconnection applications, and ultimately be the engine inside WAPA for “researching and developing strategies…to better integrate utility scale, residential and commercial distributed energy resources onto the grid.”
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