Article written by Tina Casey, via https://www.triplepundit.com
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is making a massive investment of almost $11 billion in clean energy for rural communities, with funding from the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
The Tennessee Valley Authority Act of 1933 authorized the construction of hydropower dams, with the goal of electrifying rural communities at affordable rates.
Even more clean energy for rural communitiesThe remaining $1 billion will go to provide partially forgivable loans for utilities under a program called PACE (Powering Affordable Clean Energy).
The USDA anticipates that the rural clean energy and energy-efficiency provisions will assist 41,500 farms and small businesses.
One sign of a broader approach to rural clean energy emerged in 2021 when the USDA launched the relatively modest $10 million Rural Energy Pilot Program.