If we reap what we sow, then there are going to be a lot of clean energy projects cropping up in rural America.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced its latest round of investments in clean energy projects for farms and small businesses through the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP), totaling more than $256 million in loans and grants that will support more than 1,100 clean energy projects in 40 states.
Most of the projects are funded by the Inflation Reduction Act, which has thus far supplied more than $1 billion benefiting nearly 7,000 REAP projects. Since the start of the Biden-Harris Administration, the USDA has invested more than $2.7 billion through REAP in 9,901 (and counting) renewable energy and energy efficiency improvements. REAP enables agricultural producers and rural small business owners to expand their use of wind, solar, geothermal, and small hydropower energy and make energy efficiency improvements that can increase their income, grow their businesses, and address climate change while lowering energy costs.
“The Biden-Harris Administration and USDA are ensuring farmers, small business owners, and rural communities have the resources they need for the future,” USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said. “The investments I’m announcing today will help rural communities lead our country toward an economy that benefits working people everywhere with lower costs and clean energy jobs.”
Examples of new REAP recipients
- IPR Fresh, a produce wholesaler in Nogales, Arizona, is using a grant of more than $350,000 to install a roof-mounted, solar-power system that is expected to save nearly $67,000 a year and provide 100% of the company’s electricity.
- Agriventures LLC in Pineview, Georgia, is using a grant of more than $111,000 to replace four center pivot irrigation systems that will save the family cotton farm more than $2,000 each year.
- Hydro Technology Systems Inc. in Stevens County, Washington, is using a grant of more than $172,000 to buy and install a hydropower retrofit turbine. The project will help the company generate enough hydroelectricity to power almost 760 homes.
- Tinedale Project LLC in Brown County, Wisconsin, is using a loan of more than $22 million to develop and operate a dairy manure anaerobic digester that will capture bio-methane and convert it into renewable natural gas to be transported through a local utility pipeline. The project is expected to create three jobs.
The investments announced today will benefit farmers, entrepreneurs and others in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
The full list of awardees can be viewed here, where they’re sorted by state.
In September, the Biden Administration announced that 16 rural electric cooperatives will receive up to $7.3 billion in clean energy financing through the USDA’s Empowering Rural America (New ERA) program, also funded through the IRA. The investment, touted as the largest in rural electrification since the New Deal, will help rural electric cooperatives transition to clean energy and benefit about 5 million rural residents across 23 states, representing about 20% of rural households, farms, businesses, and schools.
Last month, Secretary Vilsack announced more than $3 billion of New ERA financing, including almost $2.5 billion for the Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association and nearly $1 billion for six selected rural electric cooperatives, the “backbone” of America’s rural power delivery. As of a few weeks ago, the USDA had received applications for New ERA funding from at least 157 rural cooperatives across 40 states and Puerto Rico since the program was announced, representing more than twice the $9.7B in available funds.
