By Leo Kowalski, PA Solar Center

Attention, rural businesses, municipalities, and nonprofits: the USDA has announced a solution for your skyrocketing energy bills.

Grants through the USDA’s “Rural Energy for America Program” (REAP) have recently doubled in size due to the Inflation Reduction Act, and rural businesses can use them to implement renewable energy systems like solar power, which have been proven to slash, if not altogether eliminate, monthly energy bills.

Meanwhile rural municipalities and nonprofits are eligible for the USDA’s Community Facilities Direct Loan & Grant program.

Projects in rural underserved areas – like much of Western PA – are being prioritized.

Total REAP funding has nearly doubled from $300 million to $550 million for 2023, and maximum individual grant amounts have increased from $500,000 to $1 million.

The maximum federal grant share is also increasing from 25 percent to 40 percent of total project costs.

Combining these grants with the new 30 percent solar tax credit and additional tax credits for low-income and energy communities in the federal Inflation Reduction Act will result in major – and immediate – energy cost savings for almost all applicants as soon as the switch to solar is flipped.

Let us give an example of how this would work. Say your business currently spends $1,000 a month on electricity bills.

A typical solar system for a business of this size could be about 140 kilowatts and would cost approximately $300,000 or less to install.

A REAP grant could cover 40 percent of this amount, the solar tax credit an additional 30 percent, and a low-income or energy communities tax credit an additional 10 percent, in addition to the 100% depreciation in the first year.

All those tax benefits equate to an almost 100% reduction from the cost of the system in the first year – quite a bargain.

And then those solar panels would go on to save that business big money each month.

Countless businesses have almost eliminated their energy bills altogether through the power of solar – saving tens to hundreds of thousands each year. (Note: A business will still need to pay the demand charges of their bill, so it will not be eliminated entirely.)

Many businesses and nonprofits may wish to learn more about this rare opportunity, but do not know where to begin.

That’s why the Pennsylvania Solar Center – a nonprofit committed to providing trusted guidance to all Pennsylvanians looking to go solar – started its free G.E.T. Solar and G.E.T. Solar Communities programs.

G.E.T. Solar provides businesses, nonprofits, and community property owners with free technical assistance and financial guidance on going solar, answering any questions you might have – like whether your company is even a good candidate for solar, what kind of financing programs are available, and more.

Feb. 17 Webinar

The USDA has a REAP application deadline of March 31st, 2023.

The PA Solar Center will be hosting a free Zoom webinar on this grant program, as well as the Community Facilities program and tax credit opportunities, on Friday, February 17th, from 12:00-1:15 p.m.

The Center will also be discussing its G.E.T. Solar Communities programs and its next Request for Application deadline from interested community leaders during the webinar. G.E.T. Solar Communities works with community leaders to engage their businesses and nonprofits to explore solar.

If your company, municipality, school, or nonprofit has been hit hard by soaring energy bills, you might want to at least learn more about going solar. There may not be a better time in our history to flip the switch.

Please note that if your utility is a rural electric cooperative or municipal-owned utility, they do not abide by the same rules as the investor-owned utilities that are governed by the PA Public Utility Commission.

Many of them have restrictive rules or large fees for installing solar energy, which unfortunately may inhibit or reduce the significant savings that other Pennsylvanians can enjoy through solar that are amplified with the USDA and IRA benefits for solar and storage.

(Photo: Estes Trucking terminal solar energy installation, Mercer County.)

Leo Kowalski is the Program Director for the Pennsylvania Solar Center, a nonprofit organization with the mission to expand the benefits of solar to all Pennsylvanians to build more resilient communities.

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