PRESS RELEASE – U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development in Ohio State Director Jonathan McCracken announced today that the Village of Pioneer in Williams County, will receive a $10.5 million grant through USDA’s Powering Affordable Clean Energy (PACE) program to invest in solar power.
“Supporting communities with investments in clean, renewable energy sources strengthens our power grid while ensuring rural areas have access to reliable, affordable electricity,” said McCracken.
“In one of the most transformative investments since the New Deal, USDA’s PACE program is a historic commitment to building stronger rural communities and a more resilient, sustainable power grid that also promotes clean energy.”
The Village of Pioneer will use its PACE investment to finance solar facilities that can generate a total of nearly five megawatts of renewable energy in rural Williams County and surrounding areas.
This power generation would be the equivalent of supplying electricity to nearly 1,000 residential homes annually.
This project will create approximately 25 short-term jobs and provide adequate energy while leaving a minimal carbon footprint.
It will enable the Village of Pioneer to avoid transmission and capacity charges for energy consumed within the community.
In addition to the Village of Pioneer, USDA awarded PACE funding to two projects in American Samoa, two in Maryland, one in Vermont, and one in Washington state.
To date, USDA has selected 34 projects totaling more than $995 million in partially forgivable loans to move forward in the PACE application process.
In May 2023, USDA made $1 billion available through PACE to fund new clean energy projects and energy storage in rural America.
This program provides low interest loans with up to 60% loan forgiveness to renewable energy developers, rural electric cooperatives, and other rural energy providers for renewable energy storage and projects that use wind, solar, hydropower, geothermal, and biomass.
PACE and other investments in rural clean energy through the 2021 Inflation Reduction Act account for the largest investment in rural electrification since President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Rural Electrification Act in 1936 as part of the New Deal.