Above: St Croix

By the Caribbean Journal staff

A solar energy project at the University of the Virgin Islands will be receiving a $3 million award from the United States Department of Agriculture’s High Energy Cost Grant Programme.

The project between Veriown Energy and the University of the Virgin Islands will see the deployment of 2.16 megawatts of solar power at both the St Thomas and St Croix campuses of the university.

It is a collaboration with the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Robert W Calvin Center for Electricity Innovation, aiming to reduce the school’s dependence on fossil fuels by 50 percent by 2015 and ultimately produce 3.5 million kilowatt hours every year.

In a statement, USVI Delegate to Congress Donna Christensen congratulated Veriown and the UVI on the award.

“This is great news for our entire community,” Christensen said.  “It will allow for not only lowering costs, but also for the use of more renewables.”