President Biden announced $7.3 billion in funding for clean energy projects at 16 rural electric cooperatives on Thursday, part of the largest federal investment in rural electrification since the New Deal. The projects, at co-ops from Florida to Alaska, would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by harnessing wind, solar, and hydro power and by buying power from a now-idle nuclear plant in Michigan.
“Today’s awards will bring clean, affordable, reliable power to rural Americans all across our nation,” said White House climate adviser John Podesta.
The Dairyland Power Cooperative, based in La Crosse, Wisconsin, was the first rural electric cooperative (REC) to receive funding — $573 million. The other RECs were in an underwriting process that would lead to awards from the Empowering Rural America Program. When completed, the 16 projects would produce 10 gigawatts of clean energy and reduce or prevent greenhouse gas emissions by 43.7 million tons a year, equal to the emissions from 10 million cars, said the White House. One gigawatt is enough electricity to power 750,000 homes
“It’s an exciting announcement with a massive impact across 23 states to bring the promise of clean energy and lower costs to approximately 5 million rural households representing 20 percent of the nation’s entire rural households as well as farms and businesses that are located in those 23 states,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
Biden was to visit the Vernon Electric Cooperative, a Dairyland member that has a community solar farm, in Westby, about 100 miles northwest of Madison, Wisconsin, on Thursday. Co-op members can pay a subscription, beginning at $50 a year, to get credit for a portion of electricity from the solar panels and a reduction in their power bills.
Dairyland plans to combine federal funding with private-sector financing to procure 1,080 megawatts of renewable energy from four solar farms and four wind farms in Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, and Minnesota. Electric rates for customers would be 42 percent lower than they would be without the funding from the Empowering Rural America Program, also known as New ERA, and greenhouse gas emissions would be lower by 3 million tons a year.
“Through a carefully cultivated portfolio of renewable energy projects, New ERA will drive substantial carbon reduction across the Dairyland system, facilitate new economic growth and job creation, promote environmental stewardship, and lower energy costs for rural and agricultural communities,” said Brent Ridge, Dairyland’s chief executive.
Among the 15 RECs selected for New ERA funding was the Wolverine Power Supply Cooperative in Cadillac, Michigan, which would purchase 435 megawatts of electricity from the Holtec Palisades nuclear power plant in Covert, Michigan. Palisades was shut down in 2022.
The restart of the 800-megawatt Palisades plant would be “a historic first for the United States,” said a description of the project. Wolverine said the project would put it on the path toward producing carbon-free energy before 2030. The Michigan state budget provided $150 million in 2023 for restarting the plant. Holtec International has said it intends to build two small modular reactors at the Palisades site.
The 2022 climate, healthcare, and tax law allocated nearly $13 billion for rural electrification. Some $9.7 billion was put into New ERA loans and grants, available to RECs. An additional $1 billion went into the Powering Affordable Clean Energy program, which provides low-interest loans for renewable energy projects to entities that include cities, states, cooperatives, and tribes. Another $1 billion went to the Renewable Energy for America Program, which is available to farmers and rural small businesses for renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. An additional $500 million went to a program to assist fuel retailers in installing pumps, tanks, and other equipment to sell higher blends of renewable fuels.