Federal Program Highlights:

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  • The Environmental and Energy Study Institute showcases three rural cooperatives that were awarded clean energy grants by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Powering Affordable Clean Energy in Rural Areas (PACE) program. This partially forgivable loan program supports solar and storage battery projects for rural communities and has a $1 billion budget authority. These three case studies were part of a first cohort of five awardees announced in March 2024, receiving a total of $139 million.
  • The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) launched their Communities Sparking Investment in Transformative Energy (C-SITE) Funding Opportunity to provide $18 million in financial awards and technical assistance to advance community-identified energy priorities, spanning various technology areas including building efficiency and/or electrification, energy infrastructure upgrades, microgrid development and deployment, renewable energy, workforce development, and more. Eligible recipients include local government and tribal entities, which have until May 31, 2024, to submit full applications.
  • The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) launched the Rural and Agricultural Income and Savings from Renewable Energy (RAISE) Initiative to help farmers reduce costs and increase income through the use of underutilized renewable energy technologies such as distributed wind. Some of the activities include technical assistance to support Rural Energy for American Program (REAP) applications, funding for research into and outreach on new business models for collaborations of farmers to earn income from distributed wind, funding for a distributed wind Competitiveness Improvement Project (CIP) which will fund technology development and commercialization, a joint educational webinar series from DOE and USDA, and the development of a guide for farmers on distributed wind that will include technical, economic, and geospatial analysis.

State Program Highlights:

Written Resources:

Selected Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Provisions:

Selected Inflation Reduction Act Provisions:

Annual Programs through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA):