South Kingstown Town Manager, Robert Zarnetske, is pleased to announce that South Kingstown was recently presented with the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources “Lead by Example Clean Energy Award.” Accompanying the award is a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition from Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and a Certificate of Special Recognition from Governor Gina M. Raimondo. They recognize South Kingstown for helping Rhode Island transition to a cleaner, low-carbon energy.
South Kingstown, in partnership with the Town of Narragansett and the University of Rhode Island, worked together to develop three solar arrays across Washington County. One, constructed on the closed and capped landfill on Rose Hill Road in South Kingstown. The second array was constructed on the closed landfill on the university campus; the third, and largest solar array, is located on RT. 102 in West Greenwich, RI. These three solar arrays are a perfect example of committing unusable acreage to benefit the citizens of the state through environmental stewardship while reducing the dependence on fossil fuel burning electricity generation plants.
Additionally, South Kingstown was recognized for the continuing effort to reduce its carbon footprint and operational costs in the municipal buildings. During the past three years, the town has replaced all the fluorescent lighting fixtures with new light emitting diode (LED) light fixtures.
“The Department of Public Works and our Facilities Division deserve our gratitude for their innovative and successful efforts to make South Kingstown a clean energy community. I want to thank Jon Schock and Mark Russo for the leadership they’ve provided,” said Zarnetske.