BEND, OR -- More than $2 million in federal grants are coming to Oregon for rural businesses and farmers to reduce energy costs. USDA’s Rural Energy for America Program will invest $266 million on 1,300 projects nationwide, including over two dozen in Oregon.
Deschutes Soil and Water Conservation District Manager Erin Kilcullen says her group will use its grant to help ag producers convert to more efficient irrigation systems. "If a farmer wants to upgrade from a sprinkler system or a wheel line, or a flood system where they just flood their field, to a pivot system, that could qualify for a more efficient system," she tells KBND News, "Because that’s improving energy and saving energy. And then there’s also upgrades within different irrigation systems." She hopes the work will bring more solar powered systems to Oregon fields, which can reduce the cost of operating large irrigation systems.
Kilcullen says those upgrades benefit the watershed, "For water conservation and energy conservation. But also, on the farm, it allows farmers to reach more acreage across their property; so it can help with yield, it can allow for more cattle, it can allow for more production on their farm at a lower cost." She adds, "A lot of rural businesses and agricultural producers throughout the state of Oregon are trying to make all of their systems more efficient, which includes water savings projects, irrigation efficiencies. And along with those big projects, comes an energy component."
But converting to renewables can be costly without help from grants, like the latest allocation from the USDA, "Funds can be used for renewable energy systems - it can be used for biomass, for example. It could be used for geothermal, for electric generation use, hydropower, wind generation, solar generation," says Kilcullen.
The Deschutes Soil and Water Conservation District will use its grant to partner with the Yamhill County Soil and Water Conservation District and the North Fork John Day River Watershed Council. Other grant recipients will purchase and install solar power systems at rural Oregon businesses to reduce utility costs.
