USDA and DOE Launch the Rural and Agricultural Income & Savings from Renewable Energy (RAISE) Initiative

On February 26, 2024, USDA and DOE launched the Rural and Agricultural Income & Savings from Renewable Energy (RAISE) initiative. USDA has set an initial goal of using USDA’s Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) to help 400 individual farmers deploy smaller-scale wind projects. The goal of the initiative is to aid in cost reduction and income growth for farmers using smaller-scale wind projects and other underutilized renewable technologies. REAP is funded by IRA section 22002. In the same announcement, DOE stated that $2.5 million will go to support the testing, certification and commercialization of distributed wind technologies and $1.5 million will go to support outreach and identification of business models for farmers to deploy distributed wind.