The Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) provides assistance to agricultural producers and rural small businesses to complete a variety of projects. Offering both loan guarantees and grants, the REAP program helps eligible applicants install renewable energy systems such as solar panels or anaerobic digesters, make energy efficiency improvements such as installing irrigation pumps or replacing ventilation systems, and conduct energy audits and feasibility studies.
Follow this link to USDA Rural Development state offices: http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/BCP_Energy_CoordinatorList.html.
To be eligible for a REAP energy audit grant or a renewable energy development assistance grant, the applicant must be one of the following:
(1) A unit of State, tribal, or local government;
(2) A land-grant college or university or other institution of higher education;
(3) A rural electric cooperative;
(4) A public power entity;
(5) An instrumentality of a State, tribal, or local government
The applicant must have sufficient capacity to perform the energy audit or renewable energy development assistance activities that they propose in the application.
