In its latest but not final push for clean energy funding to 10 US rural energy cooperatives, the Biden Administration this month announced an award of more than $4.37 billion through the Empowering Rural America program from the US Department of Agriculture.
This round of funding for the Empowering Rural America program, provided under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, joins previous rounds that awarded more than $9.7 billion to member-owned rural electric cooperatives, the which the department says is the largest investment in rural electrification since the effort was launched. by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936.
The department said it also selected six other co-ops in Colorado, Louisiana, Oregon and Washington-Idaho “to move forward in the process” to receive new funding from the program and that it “expects to make more … award announcements in the coming years “. weeks”.
Two co-ops, in Texas and Florida, got a total of about $2.7 billion of the total funding.
“USDA is committed to improving the quality of life and improving the air and water in our rural communities,” said outgoing Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.
San Miguel Electric Cooperative Inc. in Atacosa County, Texas, will use its $1.4 billion award to convert a lignite-fired coal plant in the county into an estimated 600 MW of solar and battery storage which will serve 47 rural counties in the southern part of the state. . Local officials say the project will reduce carbon emissions by more than 1.8 million tons annually, and that with the cooperative’s transition to renewable energy, there will be only 14 coal-fired power plants left in Texas.
The power plant has been a target of opponents for several years, with the Environmental Integrity Project and the Sierra Club claiming it is a major cause of mercury emissions and that toxic chemicals from its two ash tanks of coal have seeped into the groundwater. The co-op disputes the allegations and says it complies with environmental regulations, the Texas Tribune reports.
Seminole Electric Cooperative Inc. in Tampa, Fla., will use its more than $1.3 billion in funding to develop 700 MW of utility-scale battery and solar energy storage projects in rural areas, reducing greenhouse gas emissions greenhouse in more than 3.5 million tons annually. according to the Department of Agriculture.
Other rural electric cooperatives receiving funding include two in Georgia: Georgia Transmission Corp, which is getting up to $325 million for new and improved transmission assets in about 20 rural communities across the state; and Oglethorpe Power Corp., with a $331.5 million investment to help refinance outstanding loans from the retired Hal B. Wansley coal plant that had served 38 member cooperatives.
United Power, a Colorado cooperative, will use $262 million to help finance the construction of more than 760 MW of renewable energy generation in rural areas. while the Yampa Valley Electric Association won nearly $50 million for up to 150 MW of solar and 75 MW of battery storage for northwest Colorado and southwest Wyoming.
Other awardees include CORE Electric Cooperative in Colorado, with $225 million in financing for 550 MW of wind and solar power and 100 MW of battery energy storage for rural communities; and Nebraska Electric G&T, which won $200 million for 725 MW of wind and solar power in Butler, Burt and Custer counties.
Connexus Energy, Minnesota’s largest electric cooperative, received nearly $170 million in grants to develop about 282 MW of renewable hydro, solar and wind power and 20 MW of battery storage. ““We appreciate that the [Agriculture Dept.] recognizes the substantial benefits our portfolio of projects delivers to our owner members in decarbonizing our energy supply,” said its president and CEO Brian Burandt, saying it would reduce carbon emissions by 2.2 million annual tons
