USDA Rural Development Invites Applications for Renewable Energy Loans and Grants

* Only rural small businesses (http://www.sba.gov/size/index.html) or farmers/ranchers are eligible to apply.
* Non-profits, units of government, and institutions of higher education are not eligible.
* Everyplace, except the Honolulu CDP (Red Hill to Makapuu Point, S and W of the crest of the Koolau Mts.) is considered "rural" for this program.
* Residential use is not allowed.
* Funds can be used to purchase and install a renewable energy system (Biomass, Anaerobic Digester, Geothermal (electric generation and direct use), Hydrogen, Wind, Solar (photovoltaic and thermal) and/or make Energy Efficiency Improvements.

USDA will issue one grant solicitation for two separate competitions in FY 2008. For the first competitive window, grant-only applications must be submitted no later than April 15, 2008. (All submissions must be received at the applicable office by 4:30 p.m. local time on the deadline date.)

For the second competitive window, grant-only applications must be submitted no earlier than April 16, 2008, and no later than June 16, 2008. Applications for loan guarantees, as well as those for loan/grant combinations must be completed and submitted to the appropriate USDA Rural Development State Office no later than June 16, 2008.

Guaranteed loan applications will be received and processed, on a rolling basis, until June 16, 2008, or funds are exhausted, whichever occurs first.

Combination packages will also be received and processed on a rolling basis until June 16, 2008. However, due to the grant component, competitive scoring of combination packages will take place on a bi-weekly basis.

To ensure equitable competition, and high quality projects, the grant portion of any combination package must score at least 70 percent of the available points (minimum of 84 points), of which at least 24 points must be for technical merit.

FY08 Funding:

Grants: $15,888,000
Guaranteed Loans: $204,953,560.

http://frwebgate3.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/waisgate.cgi?WAISdocID=84357326689+0+0+0&WAISaction=retrieve

Eligible applicants may seek loan guarantees to cover up to 50 percent of a project’s cost, not to exceed $10 million. Grants are available for up to 25 percent of a project’s cost, not to exceed $250,000 for energy efficiency improvements and $500,000 for renewable energy systems.

Fifty percent of the appropriated grant funding ($7.944M) will be reserved for the first grant-only competition. Any unused grant only funds from the first competition will be made available for the second grant-only competition.

Application Tips:

* Read the directions in the funding notice.
* Follow the directions.
* Ask for help, clarity.
* Don’t wait until the last minute.
* If you don’t at first succeed, try, try again.

Resources
http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/rbs/farmbill/index.html
USDA/Rural Development

http://hawaii.gov/dbedt/info/energy
DBEDT—Strategic Industries Division

http://www.eere.energy.gov/
DOE/Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

http://www.hawaiisenergyfuture.com/
Hawaii’ Energy Future

* Template for completing the Technical Reports (under $200K in total project costs).
* Application guides--grant only; guaranteed loan; combination loan/grant