USDA and the Energy Department have teamed up on a new initiative aimed at helping farmers cut costs and increase income through renewable energy.
The RAISE Initiative is hoping to assist 400 farmers deploy smaller-scale wind projects.
The $145 million dollars in loans and grants is being made available through the REAP Program. A Senior project leader at the National Renewable Energy Lab explains what farmers can expect from the smaller-scale turbines.
According to Ian Baring-Gould, “Wind turbines that are installed behind the meter at commercial/residential locations, but they’re smaller turbines typically than we see when the larger utility-scale wind turbines and that means that they’re deployed in different places than the large-scale wind turbines. So, we have lots of distributed wind installed in all 50 states of the nation, all the territories, because they really supply local energy needs. So, the needs of your home or your farm as compared to providing power directly to the grid, which is what the more traditional large wind turbines do.”
If you want to apply for USDA’s REAP funding, contact your local USDA State Energy Coordinators for more information.
The remaining application windows for 2024 end on June 30th and September 30th.
