In its latest, but not the last, clean energy funding push before leaving on January 19, the Biden Administration has awarded more than $4.37 billion to 10 US rural energy cooperatives through from the US Department of Agriculture’s Empowering Rural America program.
Funding selections for the program, earmarked for the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, join those from an earlier round this year that awarded a total of nearly $12 billion to privately owned rural electric cooperatives of the members. The program and others represent the largest investment in rural electrification since President Franklin D. Roosevelt launched the effort in 1936, the department said.
The USDA said it also chose 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 expects to make other award announcements “in the coming weeks.”
Two co-ops, in Texas and Florida, got about $2.7 billion of the total funding.
San Miguel Electric Cooperative Inc. in Atacosa County, Texas, will use its $1.4 billion award to convert its 400 MW lignite-fired coal plant in the county to a battery storage and solar site of 600 MW estimated to serve 47 rural southern counties. in the state Local officials say the project will reduce carbon emissions by more than 1.8 million tons annually, adding that with the cooperative’s transition to renewable energy, only 14 coal-fired power plants will remain in Texas.
The San Miguel plant has been a target of opponents for several years, with the Environmental Integrity Project and the Sierra Club claiming that it is a major cause of mercury emissions and that the toxic chemicals from its two coal ash deposits have leaked into the groundwater. The co-op disputes the allegations and says it complies with environmental regulations, the nonprofit 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. The energy wholesaler provides energy to 2 million customers in 42 counties.
Other rural cooperatives with new 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 rural renewable energy. while the Yampa Valley Electric Association won nearly $50 million for up to 150 MW of solar and 75 MW of battery storage in 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 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 project portfolio delivers to our owner members in decarbonizing the energy supply,” said its president and CEO Brian Burandt, stating that carbon emissions will be reduced by 2.2 million annual tons
“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.
