The latest round of awards under the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Powering Affordable Clean Energy program will benefit electric cooperative solar power projects in Wisconsin and Nevada.
On Sept. 25, the USDA announced that Dairyland Power Cooperative will receive a $15.6 million PACE loan to finance two separate 2-megawatt solar-and-energy storage projects in western Wisconsin. The projects will be able to power up to 1,000 homes.
The award was announced at an event in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, hosted by the Wisconsin Farmers Union.
“Dairyland is pleased to be at the forefront of energy storage deployment in rural areas,” said Brent Ridge, president and CEO of the La Crosse, Wisconsin-based generation and transmission cooperative. “We are grateful for the PACE award, which supports the development of local solar resources and the emerging technologies that will be key to the energy transition.”
One of the Dairyland projects will be served by Black River Falls-based Jackson Electric Cooperative near the Ho-Chunk Nation area. The other will be served by Ladysmith-based Jump River Electric Cooperative near the Lac Courte Oreilles, Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe area.
“Dairyland’s mission as a cooperative is to improve quality of life in the communities we serve,” Ridge said. “By leveraging federal funding opportunities such as the PACE grant, Dairyland and our members help direct the flow of economic and environmental benefits to the region.”
Along with support from the PACE award, Dairyland plans to pursue direct-pay tax credits to finance the project, co-op spokesperson Katie Thomson said.
Also on Sept. 25, the USDA tapped Harney Electric Cooperative to receive a $13.3 million PACE award to build a 5-MW solar power facility near McDermitt, Nevada. The project will allow the Hines, Oregon-based co-op to produce enough electricity to power about 530 homes annually in Nevada and Oregon.
The loan “will make the project economically possible,” Harney General Manager Fred Flippence said. “It would assist the cooperative in keeping our power costs down and in turn help keep our members’ rates affordable.”
The project “would not be possible without this award and the direct pay tax credits,” Flippence added.
Created through the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, PACE is a $1 billion program to provide low-interest, partially forgivable loans for renewable and other clean energy projects in rural areas. The IRA also enabled co-ops and other tax-exempt entities to receive the value of federal clean energy incentives through a direct-pay option, a policy change driven by strong advocacy from NRECA.
Molly Christian is a staff writer for NRECA.