U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development Alaska State Director Julia Hnilicka announced on Wednesday, Sep. 11, that Golden Valley Electric Association and Alaska Electric and Energy Cooperative Inc. will receive a share of $7.3 billion in funding through the Empowering Rural America (New ERA) program and $200 million in loan through the Powering Affordable Clean Energy Program (PACE) to build clean energy systems in rural communities in Alaska.
“These investments and partnership with GVEA through the New ERA program reflect USDA’s support for a more efficient and prosperous future through hiring up to 300 jobs for rural communities in the interior of Alaska,” said Hnilicka. “Stabilizing costs to rural cooperative members will provide consistent and affordable energy for rural communities where the price of energy is already high.”
GVEA will use its New ERA investment to add up to 150 megawatts of renewable wind energy onto their system in Interior Alaska. It will also include constructing a battery energy storage system and significant transmission infrastructure to reliably interconnect large-scale variable generation onto Alaska’s unique grid. This investment will create up to 300 short- and long-term jobs, stabilize costs to rural cooperative members, and reduce carbon emissions by over 460,000 tons each year, equivalent to removing 110,000 gasoline-powered cars annually.
Formed in 1946, GVEA is a not-for-profit rural electric cooperative that provides reliable electricity to over 36,000 members in Interior Alaska.
GVEA has also been selected to receive $100 million through the PACE program to build a 46-megawatt battery energy storage system (BESS). The PACE program is part of the Inflation Reduction Act, which represents the largest investment in rural electrification since President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Rural Electrification Act into law in 1936. With $1 billion in funding, PACE helps make clean, affordable, and reliable energy accessible to the people of rural America. The BESS energy storage is essential to provide rural Alaskans with reliable, clean energy. This is a critical part of the people of Alaska’s efforts to create a transformative clean energy economy that protects their natural environment while providing reliable, affordable energy to their communities.
Another recipient of the PACE program is Alaska Electric and Energy Cooperative Inc., which has been selected to receive $100 million to install a 45-megawatt four-hour battery energy storage system adjacent to its Soldotna Substation. The cooperative is a wholly owned subsidiary of Homer Electric Association, a distribution electric utility serving over 24,330 members across more than 3,000 square miles in Alaska’s western and southern Kenai Peninsula.
Last week, USDA announced New ERA funding to 16 recipients nationwide. The agency expects this will help deliver cleaner and more affordable energy to approximately five million households across 23 states, representing 20% of the nation’s rural households, farms, businesses, and schools.
New ERA 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.
USDA expects to announce additional New ERA and Powering Affordable Clean Energy (PACE) program awards in the coming months.