A nonprofit electric utility serving Vinalhaven and North Haven islands will spend a multimillion dollar federal grant to upgrade and expand renewable energy. It’s one of the latest pots of money coming Maine’s way from President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.
Fox Islands Electric Cooperative was awarded $8.7 million from the federal agriculture department’s Empowering Rural America program.
The money will be invested to repower and upgrade a 4.5 megawatt wind farm that generates the majority of the islands’ energy. It will also finance a new solar power array on a capped landfill.
The added renewable energy is expected to power more than 1,500 homes, according to the cooperative.
The utility was founded 50 years ago with help from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to serve the two island communities located 11 miles off the Maine coast.
Maine was one of 28 states to receive money in the latest round of the department’s program. So far, it has awarded $14.5 billion in grants, or about 90 percent of allotted funding.
This article appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.
