Guaranteed loans and grants are available from USDA Rural Development to help rural small businesses or agricultural producers looking to purchase renewable energy systems or make energy-saving improvements to their facilities or farms.

The first deadline for grant-only applications is April 15, 2008. The last date to apply for a guaranteed loan, for a combination guaranteed loan and grant, or for the second round of grant-only applications is June 16, 2008.

Grants of up to $250,000 are available for energy efficiency projects and up to $500,000 for renewable energy. Guaranteed loans of up to $10 million can be written for both energy efficiency and renewable energy projects.

“This program can make a big difference to rural small businesses or producers looking to finance a renewable energy system or make energy saving improvements to their facility or equipment,” said Mark Reisinger, USDA Rural Development State Director in Iowa. “I encourage interested business owners and producers to contact Rural Development to learn more.”

During the past five years, nearly 230 projects in Iowa have received $37 million in grants and guaranteed loan to help purchase renewable systems such as wind turbines, solar, geothermal, biodiesel, ethanol, anaerobic digesters or hydrogen, and make a wide variety of energy efficiency improvements to facilities.

Some of the improvements have included new insulation, installing automatic lights, and replacing motors, refrigeration, ventilation and electrical and HVAC systems. A popular use of the program has been to assist in the purchase of new, more efficient grain-drying systems.

Restaurants, grocery stores, bakeries, greenhouses, cold storage businesses, ethanol plants, manufacturing facilities, as well as any other business that requires a large amount of energy to operate, may benefit from an energy-efficiency upgrade that these funds could help finance.

Costs incurred before submitting an application for both grants and loan guarantees are not eligible. In addition, funds are not available for residential use.

Contact USDA Rural Development

Please contact the USDA Rural Development office in Des Moines at 515-284-4447 for more information. Further information on Rural Development programs is available by visiting the agency’s web site at www.rurdev.usda.gov/ia.