Rural Energy for America

Rural Energy for America

Rural Energy for America. I’m Greg Martin as Line On Agriculture presents the Harvest Clean Energy Report.

Bringing clean energy to rural America is a challenge but something that people like USDA’s Chris Cassidy are taking seriously with a program called REAP, the Rural Energy for America Program.

CASSIDY: We do renewable energy systems and energy efficiency improvements and we offer grants and loan guarantees and combination of grants and loans to facilitate that. So what we mean by renewable energy systems is wind or solar or geothermal or biomass or biofuel or hydrokinetic or ocean, wave, current and tidal energy or hydrogen.

Cassidy says that goes for energy efficiency as well.

CASSIDY: By energy efficiency improvements we can look at it from a structural side say a rural small business or an agriculture producer – maybe a dairy if they wanted to replace their lighting or their insulation or their doors or windows, make them more energy efficient or if they wanted to make their processes more energy efficient.

The program does pinpoint rural producers and businesses.

CASSIDY: The participation is a maximum grant of 25% or a loan guarantee of 75% or a combination of a loan guarantee and grant up to 75% of the eligible project costs

To get more information or to apply for REAP benefits Cassidy says you should check out the USDA’s Rural Development website or visit your local office.

CASSIDY: Each state office has authority to do grants and loans up to a certain amount and if it exceeds that amount or they run out of their state allocation then they can come to the national office in Washington DC where we keep a reserve.

The deadline for applying for REAP funding is July 31. This year $60 million is available for projects.

For additional information on clean energy, visit harvestcleanenergy.org. That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.

 

www.harvestcleanenergy.org

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