Federal grant programs / Department of Agriculture

Rural Energy for America Program (10.868)

Also known as REAP

• Awarded, FY 2021 to 2025$1.5 billion
• Grant awards11,636
• Typical award$55,034
• Awarded in FY 2025$360 million
• Size rank204 of 1824
• Type of assistanceLoan guarantees/grants

Key findings

• Annual funding rose from $37.1 million in fiscal 2021 to $360 million in fiscal 2025.
• It is the 204th largest of 1,824 federal grant programs by five-year awards.
• The 20 largest recipients received 2% of the money.
• Awards went to recipients in 53 states and territories.

What the program funds

(1) Provision of grants and loan guarantees to agricultural producers and rural small businesses to promote energy efficiency improvements and renewable energy systems development. The program provides grants of up to 25% of project costs and/or loan guarantees of up to 75% of project costs to purchase and install energy efficiency improvements and renewable energy systems. (2) Provision of grants to government entities or their instrumentalities, educational institutions, rural electric cooperatives, Resource Conservation and Development Councils, and public power entities to assist with the cost of performing energy audits and renewable energy development assistance for agricultural producers and rural small businesses. Recipients of energy audits must pay at least 25% of the cost of the audit.

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

Open opportunities

• Renewable Energy Systems and Energy Efficiency Improvements Program
  Open · Rolling or no fixed deadline · up to $500,000

Rules from the program listing

Who can apply

To be eligible for renewable energy systems or energy efficiency improvement assistance, an applicant must be an agricultural producer or rural small business. Rural small businesses must be located in a rural area. The applicant or owner must not have an outstanding judgment, delinquent on any Federal debt or debarred from receiving Federal assistance. Under the Energy Audit and Renewable Energy Development Assistance programs eligible applicants include governmental entities and their instrumentalities, educational institutions, rural electric cooperatives, Resource Conservation and Development Councils, and public power entities.

What the money can and cannot pay for

For renewable energy systems and energy efficiency improvements, the amount of a grant shall not exceed the lesser of 25 percent of eligible project costs or $500,000 for renewable energy systems and $250,000 for energy efficiency improvements. The maximum amount of combined grant or guaranteed loan made shall not exceed 75 percent of eligible project costs. For Energy Audit, the recipient of the audit must pay 25 percent of the cost of the energy audit.

Matching requirements

This program has no statutory formula. Matching Requirements: For Renewable Energy Systems and Energy Efficiency Improvement assistance: The applicant must provide at least 75 percent of leveraged funds if the request is for grant only funds. For a combination grant and loan guarantee and loan guarantee only, the applicant must provide at least 25 percent of leveraged funds. Other Federal grants may not be used to meet the 75 percent requirement for the grant. For Energy Audit and Renewable Energy Development Assistance: The recipient of the energy audit must pay at least 25% of the cost of the audit.MOE requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing.

Deadlines

February 1, 2027

Award range and average, in the agency's words

Grants Range $2,500 to $500,000; Average $45,000. Guaranteed Loan Range $5,000 to $25,000,000; Average $85,000.

Examples of funded projects

Fiscal Year2025: This Rural Development investment will be used for the purchase, replacement, and installation of energy efficient cooler and freezer for a meat processing cooperative. This project is expected to save $5,486.55per year. It will replace 50,922 kilowatt hours (kWh) per year, which is enough energy to power 5 homes. This Rural Development investment will be used to help beef cattle producer to install more energy-efficient electric pivot irrigation. The improvements are expected to save the business $2,900 in electrical costs per year and replace 35,300 kilowatt hours (85 percent of the business energy use) per year, which is enough energy to power three homes.

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

State and local governments received 0.7% of the money.

By state

52 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.