16 Rural Electric Cooperatives Will Leverage $7.3 Billion in Federal Funding to Deliver More Affordable, Reliable Electricity to Their Members - CleanTechnica The first wave of 16 rural electric cooperatives (co-ops) selected to receive the USDA’s Empowering Rural America (New ERA) funding plan RMI CleanTechnica

The first wave of 16 rural electric cooperatives (co-ops) selected to receive the USDA’s Empowering Rural America (New ERA) funding plan to leverage their awards to deploy carbon-free energy to help power 5 million homes in rural communities across 23 states, from California to Florida and Texas to Alaska.

The majority of new electricity sources that will be funded are solar and wind power. These projects will decrease the cost to generate electricity for rural America, increase the resiliency for communities without sacrificing reliability, and lay the foundation for even more ambitious investments to come: