Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced $4.37 billion in grants and loans to 10 rural electric cooperatives on Thursday for clean energy projects that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 1.1 million tons a year. With the awards, the USDA has allocated nearly $9 billion of the $9.7 billion available in the Empowering Rural America program.
The so-called New ERA program, created as part of the 2022 climate law, is the largest federal investment in rural electrification since the New Deal. In all, 15 member-owned electric cooperatives have received funding. Six others are under consideration.
San Miguel Electric Cooperative received the largest of the 10 awards announced Thursday: $1.4 billion to procure 600 megawatts of power from solar panels and a battery storage system to serve 47 counties in rural South Texas. The cooperative is based in Christine, Texas, 60 miles south of San Antonio.
Seminole Electric Cooperative, with headquarters in Tampa, received $1.3 billion to procure 700 megawatts of power from utility-scale solar and battery storage projects in rural Florida. Seminole says it serves 2 million consumers in 42 of the state’s 67 counties.
The eight other co-ops received awards ranging from $43 million for Trico Electric Cooperative of Marana, Arizona, to $331.5 million for Oglethorpe Power Corp. of Tucker, Georgia.