USDA Awards $380 Million to Modernize Clean Power for Rural Electric Cooperatives in 14 States

DES MOINES, Iowa — Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced on Monday the distribution of $380 million in federal grants from the Empowering Rural America (New ERA) program to finance the deployment of utility-scale agrivoltaic solar installations, battery storage, and high-efficiency transmission lines across fourteen member-owned rural electric cooperatives.

The investment, the largest single federal investment in rural electrification since the historic Rural Electrification Act of 1936, enables rural co-ops serving over 1.8 million agricultural producers and rural households to transition aging fossil assets to affordable, locally owned clean power.

Lowering Rural Electricity Costs and Sourcing Solar on Farmland Rural households historically face electric utility rates up to 20 percent higher than urban consumers due to long transmission distances and low customer density per line mile. Agrivoltaic systems allow livestock grazing and specialty crop farming underneath elevated solar arrays.

"Eighty years ago, the federal government helped bring electricity to rural America, and today we are making sure our rural communities lead the clean energy future," Secretary Tom Vilsack said during an announcement at an electric cooperative in central Iowa. "These $380 million investments will lower electric bills for farm families, create high-paying technical jobs in rural towns, and ensure our member-owned electric cooperatives remain financially strong and energy independent."

Cooperative Allocations Across Agricultural Corridors Key grant awards include:

• Central Iowa Power Cooperative (CIPCO): $65 million for 150 MW of agrivoltaic solar integrated with sheep grazing and 60 MWh of battery storage.
• Great River Energy (Minnesota/North Dakota): $55 million for transmission lines connecting rural community wind farms.
• Dairyland Power Cooperative (Wisconsin/Illinois/Iowa): $50 million for utility-scale solar and smart grid telemetry.
• Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corporation: $45 million for rural substation microgrids and distribution automation.
• Ten additional cooperatives across Colorado, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, and Nebraska receiving between $15 million and $35 million.

Rural cooperative managers and state farm bureaus praised the federal funding, emphasizing that locally owned clean power protects agricultural ratepayers from volatile wholesale fuel market spikes.