A joint effort between the departments of Agriculture and Energy plans to quadruple the use of wind energy program.
The Rural and Agricultural Income and Savings from Renewable Energy, or RAISE, initiative aims to help 400 producers add wind projects on their operations through funding from USDA’s Rural Energy for America Program.
USDA and DOE announced the effort — and a joint working group overseeing RAISE and its goals — on Monday, noting DOE has “identified advances in certified distributed wind technology that have opened a significant market opportunity, enabling cost-effective investments for farmers and rural communities.”
In a statement, Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack said the funding provided through the RAISE initiative “will create long-lasting economic benefits for their families, businesses and communities for years to come.”
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm called the program a “huge opportunity to power the American heartland with distributed wind resources.”
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As part of the RAISE launch, USDA earmarked nearly $145 million in REAP grant funding and will provide “additional technical assistance” to support applications to use it “including but not limited to farmer-owned smaller-scale wind projects, small-scale hydropower, geothermal, biomass-based and other clean energy.
DOE also intends to prioritize technical assistance for smaller-scale wind projects through various programs,” the department said in a release.
The Agriculture Energy Coalition applauded the announcement, saying it would quadruple within five years the number of small-scale wind energy projects under REAP.
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