Energy Office Solarizes First Day-Care and Issues RFP for 5 More Sites Territory-Wide
The Virgin Islands Energy Office (VIEO) is proud to announce major milestones under the VIHFA funded Community Electrical Innovation (CEI) Program, advancing the Territory’s strategy to strengthen essential community services through resilient, clean, solar & battery micro-grids. The CEI program aligns with the Bryan/Roach Administration’s commitment to expand renewable energy, bolster grid resilience, and accelerate energy independence by reducing the Territory’s exposure to imported fuel costs and grid disruptions. By pairing solar generation with battery energy storage to create microgrids, continuity of operations at critical facilities is enabled even during power outages all the while lowering monthly energy costs.
In the past two weeks, the VIEO has achieved two meaningful milestones relative to fulfilling the goals of the CEI program:
The First CEI Funded Solar & Battery Micro-Grid Installed & Energized
VIEO has completed the first CEI-funded solar and battery microgrid installation at Happy Faces II, a St. Croix day care that provides essential childcare services to working families in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Installed and commissioned by ProSolar Caribbean in May 2026, the system includes 9.9 kW of solar PV paired with 40.5 kWh of battery energy storage. This CEI-funded system significantly increases the site’s resilience during power outages while also reducing its electricity bill. The battery system includes three (3) Tesla Powerwall 3 units, which have already been registered in the VIEO’s recently launched Virtual Power Plant (VPP) program. The VPP expands the value of CEI-funded sites beyond facility-level resilience by enabling future grid-support services through coordinated distributed energy storage.
Designed specifically to mitigate outage-driven disruptions, the system helps ensure childcare services remain dependable for families so parents and guardians can continue to work with greater confidence that critical services will remain online.
RFP Released for Five Additional Day Care/Head Start Solar Microgrids
The next wave of CEI-funded projects has simultaneously achieved a critical milestone with the release of the Request for Proposals (RFP): BD-26-270-2710-642- CEI Solar and Battery Systems Phase 1 for five (5) additional CEI-
funded Day Care and Head Start microgrid sites across St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix. Collectively, the RFP represents 149 kW of solar PV and 600 kWh of battery energy storage, a meaningful near-term expansion of community-scale resilience infrastructure supporting facilities that serve children, families, and working households.
Project Sites and System Specifications
- St. Thomas: DHS Sugar Estate Head Start — 72 kW Solar / 224 kWh BESS
- St. John: DHS Cruz Bay Head Start — 32 kW Solar / 211 kWh BESS
- St. Croix: DHS Anna’s Hope Head Start — 21 kW Solar / 65 kWh BESS
- St. Croix: DoReMi Daycare — 12 kW Solar / 50 kWh BESS
- St. Croix: Tenacious Toddlers Learning Center — 12 kW Solar / 50 kWh BESS
Program Background
VIEO is administering CEI as a subgrantee under the Virgin Islands Housing Finance Authority’s (VIHFA) award of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Community Development Block Grant–Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) E-Grid funds. CEI is a grant opportunity designed to support community-based organizations and nonprofits in underserved areas through the development of small- to large-scale solar and battery energy storage microgrid systems. Last summer, the VIEO conducted a comprehensive application process and identified 29 critical facilities across the USVI. The VIEO is now aggressively transitioning to the execution phase of the solar & battery micro-grids at the selected sites.
The scope of work for each CEI project site includes engineering, equipment procurement, system construction, final commissioning, and initial training. Vendors are invited to respond to the RFP. Each project site will be considered for award individually, and vendors may bid on all sites or any subset of sites based on their capabilities and interests.
For more information on the RFP please visit https://gvibuy.buyspeed.com/bso/
