Federal grant programs / Department of Agriculture

Community Wood Energy and Wood Innovation Program (10.708)

• Awarded, FY 2021 to 2025$68.9 million
• Grant awards89
• Typical award$903,100
• Awarded in FY 2025$16.6 million
• Size rank924 of 1824
• Type of assistanceGrant

Key findings

• Annual funding rose from $3.0 million in fiscal 2021 to $16.6 million in fiscal 2025.
• It is the 924th largest of 1,824 federal grant programs by five-year awards.
• The 20 largest recipients received 36% of the money.
• Awards went to recipients in 32 states and territories.

What the program funds

Provide assistance to supplement the capital costs for: 1) Installing a wood energy system that utilizes wood and wood biomass (including residuals) as the primary fuels source. 2) Building an innovative wood products facility which can include the facility, equipment, and/or equipment systems. Projects that support the wood energy program may include: 1) Single facility central heating systems. 2) District heating systems that service several buildings. 3) Combined heat and electric systems where thermal is the primary energy output. Projects that support the wood innovations program may include: 1) Building components or systems that use large, panelized wood construction, including mass timber 2) Wood products derived from nanotechnology or other new technology processes 3) Other innovative wood products that use low-value, low-quality wood. Projects should support one or more criteria: 1) Latest technology boiler controls or control systems. 2) Carried out in a location where markets are needed for the low value, low quality wood. 3) Carried out in a location with limited access to natural gas pipelines; 4) Include the use of or retrofitting (or both) of existing sawmill facilities located in a location where the average annual unemployment rate exceeded the national average unemployment rate by more than 1 percent during the previous calendar year; or carried out in a location where the project would aid with forest restoration.

From the federal Assistance Listing. Read the full listing on SAM.gov.

Open opportunities

No opportunity under this program is open or forecast on Grants.gov right now. Programs often post once a year, so the funding history below shows what to expect.

Rules from the program listing

What the money can and cannot pay for

Projects should aid locations where markets are needed for low value, low quality wood. Projects should: 1. Aid locations where forest restoration is needed. 2. Aid locations with previously closed or limited wood infrastructure. 3. Aid locations with limited access to natural gas pipelines.

Matching requirements

This program has no statutory formula. Federal funds may cover no more than 35% of capital costs. Match must be from non-Federal funding.MOE requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing.

Award range and average, in the agency's words

$100,000-$1,000,000

Examples of funded projects

Fiscal Year2025: The project will help reuse wood byproducts as a fuel for a biomass burner and to produce pellets to fuel a thermal modification plant. This project helps showcase a model to better address wood residue utilization and promote active forest management.

Quoted from the program's federal Assistance Listing. The notice of funding opportunity is the official source for each competition's rules.

Who usually wins

Businesses received 54% of the money, small businesses 33% and state and local governments 6.5%.

By state

25 states have a page for this program: those that received at least $1 million or 10 awards.

Award amounts are federal obligations reported to USAspending.gov for fiscal 2021 to 2025; see how our data works.