REAP Deadlines

REAP Deadlines

REAP Deadlines. I’m Greg Martin as Line On Agriculture presents the Harvest Clean Energy Report.

The Renewable Energy for America Program or REAP has been a huge success all across the U.S. and provides assistance to agricultural producers and rural small businesses to complete a variety of projects, including renewable energy systems, energy efficiency improvements, renewable energy development, energy audits, and feasibility studies. According to Roni Baer, Business Program Specialist with Rural Development the deadline is quickly approaching.

BAER: The deadline for applications for the notice of funding that came out this year is - for most of the components of the REAP is March 30th although what we call the energy audits and renewable energy development assistance, that deadline is February 21st. But for the most part most of the programs that are going to be utilized by either the rural small businesses or the agricultural producers, their deadline is the March 30th.

Baer says depending on your project the application process can be easy or more difficult.

BAER: It can be pretty extensive I think from an applicants standpoint. Our website does provide them with templates for the forms that need to be completed. If they’re looking at small projects under $50-thousand dollars then the technical reports aren’t as complicated but for the bigger projects then it does become a bit more complex for them.

She says there is assistance out there if necessary. Baer talks about the most common questions.

BAER: How do I do this, where do I start? There’s a lot of discussion that is out in the public about renewable energy or energy efficiency programs but people don’t really understand where to go or how to go about it. So we get a lot of calls about what the program is.

If you have a fairly simple project in mind Baer says there is probably time to get the application completed before the March deadline.

BAER: Especially some of the more smaller projects of energy efficiency if you are talking about a business, maybe a grocery store for instance that is going to change out lighting or refrigeration equipment or freezers and things like that. Those type of projects could still easily be completed in an application by March 30th. When you are looking at a project that might be for the development of a wind turbine or even a solar project, that might be more complex in order to get an application completed in that time frame.

She does add though it’s never too early to start on an application for next year. For additional information on clean energy, visit harvestcleanenergy.org. That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.??

http://www.harvestcleanenergy.org 

Previous ReportOpening Organic Trade
Next ReportMasterCop