FYI. See information below. I apologize if you receive this more than once. Please forward to others who may want to take advantage of this opportunity. As a reminder, only rural small businesses and farmers/ranchers are
eligible. Non-profits, units of government, and institutions of higher
education are not.
To qualify as a farmer/rancher, the entity, including
corporate parents, affiliates, and subsidiaries, must derive at least 50% of
total income from the farm operations.
To qualify as a small business, the
entity, including corporate parents, affiliates, and subsidiaries, must meet
the definition based on the Small Business Administration guidelines
(http://www.sba.gov/idc/groups/public/documents/sba_homepage/serv_sstd_tablepdf.pdf).
All
of Hawaii and the Western Pacific are considered ?rural?, except theHonolulu
Census Designated Place (CDP) which is defined as Red Hill to Makapuu Point,
S and W of the crest of the Koolau Mts. Available on request are a list of
grant writers and a list of energy auditors/assessors. These lists can be
provided as information only. There are no guarantees or assurances on the
quality of work, or any other representation made by any of the people
listed. There have been some changes made, primarily to do with funding
deadlines and funding availability. The bottom line is to submit a
complete application ASAP. There is a final due date of 7/31/09, but if you
wait until then, your chances of obtaining funding diminish. The
funding
priorities are:
1. Grants $20,000 or less. Funding can be
accessed twice a month through
7/31/09, starting 6/15/09.
2. Grants with
a corresponding guaranteed loan request. Funding can be
accessed twice a
month through 7/31/09, starting 6/15/09.
I will be scheduling a
teleconference in a few weeks to go over the
changes.
Tim
Timothy W.
O’Connell
Assistant to the State Director/Rural Energy
Coordinator
USDA/Rural Development
154 Waianuenue Ave., Room 303
Hilo,
HI 96720
(808) 933-8313
(808) 933-8326 (F)
Committed to the future of
rural communities -o5/26/09
The Notice of Funding has finally been published in the
Federal Register today, May 26, 2009.
http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/pdf/E9-12178.pdf
Grants
are available for up to 25% of a project?s cost, not to exceed $250,000 for
energy efficiency improvements and $500,000 for renewable energy
systems. The maximum amount of a guaranteed loan is $25
million. Guaranteed loan only requests and combination guaranteed loan and
grant requests cannot exceed 75% of eligible project costs.
Summary of
Changes:
1. Submit applications to the appropriate USDA Rural
Development State Office by July 31, 2009 (address above). All applications
must be received at the appropriate State Office by 4:30 p.m. local time on
the deadline date. Neither complete nor incomplete applications
received after this date and time will be considered, regardless of the
postmark on the application.
2. National set-aside for applications
for grants less than $20,000. The reserve funds for these grants will be
accessible to the States on the 15th and the last of day of each month prior
to August 31, 2009.
3. No renewable energy system or energy efficiency
improvement, orportion thereof, can be used for any residential purpose,
including any residential portion of a rural small business, farm, ranch,
or agricultural facility. However, an applicant may apply for funding for
the installation of a second meter or provide certification in the
application that any excess power generated by the renewable energy system
will be sold to the grid and will not be used by the applicant for
residential purposes.
4. The applicant for a grant or combination
guaranteed loan and grant must demonstrate financial need. Only those
packages that demonstrate financial need will be considered for
funding.
5. There has been an allocation of funds to States. Funds not used by a State by 9/8/09, will be pooled and revert to the National
Office Reserve and made available to other States on a competitive
basis.
6. After a State?s grant only allocation is used up, there will
be only one opportunity to compete for grant funds nationally after
9/8/09.
7. Requests for Reserve funds for loan-only and
loan/grant combination requests may be made at any time. Loan/grant
combination requests will be allocated to States on a competitive basis using
priority scores of the applications on the 15th and the last of day of each
month.
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