Apply for a USDA Rural Energy for America Grant (REAP) before March 31, 2023

Encouraging your customers to install energy efficiency equipment just got easier with help from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The USDA is offering grant funding to rural small businesses and agricultural producers to make energy efficiency improvements or to install renewable energy systems. The USDA was awarded $2 billion in grant funding over the next 10 years from the Inflation Reduction Act, making now a great time for your customers to make energy efficient improvements.

Grant funds can be used for the purchase, installation and construction of energy efficiency improvements and can cover up to 40 percent of total project costs for eligible improvements, including but not limited to, HVAC, lighting, cooling or refrigeration and more. To be eligible for grant funds applicants must be a small business in eligible rural areas or an agricultural producer with at least 50 percent of their gross income coming from agricultural operations.

To determine if your small business is in an eligible rural area, please visit the following link. The deadline to submit an application for the upcoming round of funding is March 31, 2023, so make sure to inform your customers about this program so they can apply before the March deadline.

For more information on the program and eligibility, please visit the REAP website or contact your local USDA Energy Coordinator.