The USDA on Oct. 3 awarded $104 million in loans and grants to more than 300 clean energy projects under the Rural Energy for America Program. Biogas and bioenergy projects were among those selected for funding.

Britton Lumber Co. LLC was awarded a $581,995 grant to support the installation of a 300HP biomass boiler system in a new boiler building at its softwood processing mill in Bath, New Hampshire. The new wood gasification steam-boiler system will generate approximately 95% of the site’s thermal energy needs from wood residues that are already produced on-site as byproducts of the company’s lumber production process. The new system is expected to save Britton Lumber Co. more than $225,000 annually.

Ryegate Associates was awarded a $1 million grant to support the installation of a waste heat recovery module, which will retrofit the Ryegate Biomass Power Plant in East Ryegate, Vermont, to capture waste heat, generating new heat energy. The module will be installed at the base of the plant stack and increase the amount of energy generated at the facility by an additional 315,466 MMBtus annually. Ryegate has an off-take agreement in place for the expanded energy production. According to the USDA, the Ryegate Biomass Power Plant has been in continuous operation since 1992, producing 22.5 megawatts (MW)/19.6 MW (net) to the Vermont electric grid from 250,000 annual tons of wood chips. The project that received REAP funding will retrofit the operation, converting it to a combined-heat-and-power (CHP) plant. The annual value of this additional energy generation is $1.89 million.

Highlands Energy LLC was awarded a $1 million grant to purchase and install a lagoon dairy anaerobic digester for a 21,625-herd farm. The project will be located at South Ride Dairy LLC, a family-owned farming operating located in Twin Falls County, Idaho. The project is expected to save $3.02 million per year. It will replace 44.18 million kilowatt hours (kWh) per year, which is enough electricity to power 4,207 homes.