Dairyland Power Cooperative, Hoosier Energy and United Power are among 16 cooperative utilities selected for $7.3 billion in funding for rural clean energy projects through the Inflation Reduction Act.
The cooperatives will leverage the funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Empowering Rural America, or New ERA, program to spend about $29 billion on developing or buying over 10 GW of clean energy, related transmission and substation upgrades and distributed energy resource management software, the White House said Thursday.
These investments will lower energy costs for farmers and rural Americans, plus help improve grid performance, resiliency and reliability for rural residents in 23 states, according to the White House.
“One in five rural Americans will benefit from these clean energy investments, thanks to partnerships with rural electric cooperatives like Dairyland,” USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement. “Put simply, this is rural power, for rural America.”
The $9.7 billion New Era program represents the largest investment in rural electrification since President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Rural Electrification Act into law in 1936, the USDA said. Under the program, cooperative utilities can receive a grant for up to 25% of their project cost, with total loans and grants limited to $970 million per cooperative.
“The New ERA program showcases what is possible when the government prioritizes voluntary, flexible decision-making and allows electric co-ops to take a tailored approach to respond to local needs,” National Rural Electric Cooperative Association CEO Jim Matheson said in a press release.
Dairyland, based in La Crosse, Wisconsin, was awarded $573 million to help procure 1.1 GW of wind and solar generation at a total cost of $2.1 billion. Dairyland’s electric rates for its 24 utility members are expected to be 42% lower over 10 years than they would have been without the New ERA funding, according to the USDA.
Fifteen cooperative utilities have cleared the New ERA program’s competitive stage and are in the underwriting process to receive an award, the department said.
One of those cooperatives, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, plans to use the pending funding to support retiring 1,100 MW of coal-fired generation and buy 1,480 MW of solar, wind and battery storage across Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico and Wyoming, the USDA said.
Meanwhile, Seminole Electric Cooperative plans to use its pending funding to build 700 MW of utility-scale solar and battery energy storage projects across rural parts of Florida.
Other cooperatives with pending awards are: Allegheny Electric Cooperative, Arizona Electric Power Cooperative, Basin Electric Power Cooperative, Buckeye Power, CORE Electric Cooperative, East Kentucky Power Cooperative, Golden Valley Electric Association, Great River Energy, Minnkota Power Cooperative, San Miguel Electric Cooperative and Wolverine Power Supply Cooperative.
Sarah Zimmerman contributed to this story.
