Rural Energy for America Program

(1) Provision of grants and loan guarantees to agricultural producers and rural small businesses to promote energy efficiency improvements and renewable energy systems development. The program provides grants of up to 25% of project costs and/or loan guarantees of up to 75% of project costs to purchase and install energy efficiency improvements and renewable energy systems. (2) Provision of grants to government entities or their instrumentalities, educational institutions, rural electric cooperatives, Resource Conservation and Development Councils, and public power entities to assist with the cost of performing energy audits and renewable energy development assistance for agricultural producers and rural small businesses. Recipients of energy audits must pay at least 25% of the cost of the audit.

To be eligible for renewable energy systems or energy efficiency improvement assistance, an applicant must be an agricultural producer or rural small business. Rural small businesses must be located in a rural area. The applicant or owner must not have an outstanding judgment, delinquent on any Federal debt or debarred from receiving Federal assistance. Under the Energy Audit and Renewable Energy Development Assistance programs eligible applicants include governmental entities and their instrumentalities, educational institutions, rural electric cooperatives, Resource Conservation and Development Councils, and public power entities.

(1) Quantity of Energy Replaced, Produced, or Saved (2) Environmental benefits (3) Commercial availability (4) Technical Merit � (5) Readiness (Grants only) (6) Small Agricultural Producer/Very Small Rural Business (7) Simplified application (8) Previous grantees and borrowers (9) Simple payback (10) State Director and Administrator priorities and points. (11) Loan Rate (Guaranteed Loans only:

Matching Requirements: For Renewable Energy Systems and Energy Efficiency Improvement assistance: The applicant must provide at least 75 percent of leveraged funds if the request is for grant only funds. For a combination grant and loan guarantee and loan guarantee only, the applicant must provide at least 25 percent of leveraged funds. Other Federal grants may not be used to meet the 75 percent requirement for the grant. For Energy Audit and Renewable Energy Development Assistance: The recipient of the energy audit must pay at least 25% of the cost of the audit.

Fiscal year 2025: This Rural Development investment will be used for the purchase, replacement, and installation of energy efficient cooler and freezer for a meat processing cooperative. This project is expected to save $5,486.55per year. It will replace 50,922 kilowatt hours (kWh) per year, which is enough energy to power 5 homes. This Rural Development investment will be used to help beef cattle producer to install more energy-efficient electric pivot irrigation. The improvements are expected to save the business $2,900 in electrical costs per year and replace 35,300 kilowatt hours (85 percent of the business energy use) per year, which is enough energy to power three homes.