USDA: special $1 million carbon-reducing incentive available to selected biorefineries

In Washington, the US Department of Agriculture is offering a financial incentive to a specific group of biorefineries; those that were in existence on or before June 18, 2008.  A payment of up to $1 million is available for qualifying facilities to reduce their carbon footprint by replacing fossil fuels used in their heat and/or power process with renewable biomass.

Approximately, $4 million is available in total funding.  There is no minimum payment amount that an individual biorefinery may receive. The maximum amount an individual biorefinery may receive under this announcement is 50 percent of total eligible project costs, up to a maximum of $1 million.

The purpose of the program is to provide financial incentives to biorefineries in existence on or before June 18, 2008 (the date of the enactment of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008) to replace the use of fossil fuels used to produce heat or power at their facilities by installing new systems that use renewable biomass, or to produce new energy from renewable biomass.

Facilities may receive payment for up to 3 years. The selection of a project to receive payments as well as the amount and duration of payments will depend upon how a facility scores on the ranking criteria which are, in general: cost, cost effectiveness and technical merit.

The notice inviting applications for the Repowering Assistance Program was published on July 25, 2016.  Applications will be accepted through October 24, 2016.

Applications and additional program information are available from:

Fred Petok, USDA, Rural Development at 202–690–0784 or [email protected]