Are you replacing your grain dryer or adding geo-thermal?
Grants and guaranteed loans available
USDA Rural Development Offering Grants and Guaranteed Loans to Businesses to Produce Renewable Energy or Make Energy-Saving Improvements
Grants and guaranteed loans are available from USDA Rural Development to help rural businesses or agricultural producers looking to produce renewable energy or make energy-saving improvements to their facilities or farms.
“This program can make a big difference to rural small businesses or producers looking to finance a renewable energy system or make energy saving improvements to their facility or equipment,” said Mark Reisinger, USDA Rural Development State Director in Iowa. “I encourage interested business owners and producers to contact Rural Development to learn more.”
During the past seven years, nearly 1,325 projects in Iowa have received $130 million in grants and guaranteed loan to help install renewable systems such as wind turbines, solar, geothermal, biodiesel, ethanol, anaerobic digesters or hydrogen, and make a wide variety of energy efficiency improvements to facilities. 
Restaurants, grocery stores, bakeries, greenhouses, cold storage businesses, ethanol plants, manufacturing facilities, as well as any other business that requires a large amount of energy to operate, may benefit from an energy-efficient upgrade that these funds could help finance.
Costs incurred before submitting an application for both grants and loan guarantees are not eligible. In addition, funds are not available for residential use.
Grants can cover up to 25 percent of the project costs. The minimum grant application is $1,500 for energy efficiency improvement projects and $2,500 for renewable energy projects. The maximum energy efficiency grant is $250,000; $500,000 for renewable energy.
Guaranteed loans can be issued for up to 50 percent of the project costs. Minimum project costs to qualify for a guaranteed loan are $10,000 for both energy efficiency and renewable projects. The maximum guaranteed loan is $10 million.
A combination grant and guaranteed loan can be requested for up to 75 percent of eligible project costs.
Contact Hawkeye REC
Please contact Pat Boyle at (563) 547-3801 for more information.
Members of Hawkeye received over $940,000 in grants during 2010 for energy efficiency/renewable energy.
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Replacement grain dryer installed on a Northeast Iowa farm
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