The Agriculture Department said Friday it would make $746.5 million in funding available for farms and small businesses to invest in clean energy through the Rural Energy for America and Empowering Rural America programs, including in the electoral swing states of Pennsylvania and Michigan.
The USDA will make $600 million available for REAP to help agricultural producers and rural businesses improve energy efficiency with renewable energy. The funds will be provided in three rounds until 2027 and $60 million of the money will go to underutilized renewable energy technology.
“Farmers, rural business owners and electric cooperatives are the backbone of our economy, and we are partnering with them to expand their operations while creating jobs and lowering energy costs,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a press release.
The USDA also provided $126 million in REAP grants to fund 654 clean energy projects in 39 states, Guam and Puerto Rico. The goal is to help agricultural producers and small businesses expand wind, solar, geothermal and small hydropower energy and make energy efficiency improvements.
The funding includes a $294,000 grant to Farmer Boy Ag Inc. in Pennsylvania and $813,000 grant to Veddler Dairy Farm Inc. in Michigan, both to install a solar photovoltaic system. Nearly $250,000 will go to Glen Lehner Farms LLC in Ohio to install an energy efficient grain dryer and $555,000 to a family-owned farm in Idaho, Poteet Farms Inc., to go solar.
The department is also spending $20 million through the ERA, a program aimed at strengthening U.S. energy independence and the resilience of the electric grid, to help the Allegheny Electric Cooperative cut energy costs and back the cooperative’s investment in 25 megawatts of clean energy for about 235,000 households in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
The Friday announcements were made under what the Biden administration calls its Justice40 initiative to get 40 percent of the benefits of some programs to disadvantaged communities. Both programs are funded through the 2022 clean energy law.