NC State University's NC Clean Energy Tech Center (NCCETC, part of the NCSU's College of Engineering) released this nice article on their work helping farmers and small businesses improve energy efficiency and transition power supply to clean energy sources.The NC CETC is actively engaging with North Carolina's farming and rural communities with application assistance for funding to make such changes with REAP funds. The USDA Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) - with funds from the Inflation Reduction Act - provides grant funding and loan guarantees to agricultural producers and rural small businesses for renewable energy system (RES) and energy efficiency improvement (EEI) projects. Energy improvement technologies include solar, solar plus storage, wind, biomass, geothermal and hydrogen.

NC CETC is helping entities apply for funding to the REAP program through its technical assistance program. The Clean Power and Industrial Efficiency (CPIE) team is currently helping agricultural producers and rural businesses along their path to expanding energy independence and cost savings. For technical assistance from the CPIE team from NCCETC for a REAP assessment or for assistance with completing a REAP application, contact Art Samberg at asamber@ncsu.edu or at (919) 515-5959.

N.C. Cooperative Extension Specialist Debbie Roos (Chatham County) recently hosted a webinar on the REAP technical assistance program, that webinar recording and supporting materials can be found here.