National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corp. (NRUCFC) has issued nearly $31 million in clean renewable energy bonds (CREBs) to six electric cooperatives in five states as part of a federal program to fund renewable energy projects. The bonds will finance a variety of new initiatives to develop alternative energy resources, including solar, wind and landfill gas.
Electric cooperatives in Arizona, Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota and Vermont will use CREBs to launch 27 renewable energy projects, including the construction of wind power facilities. The projects range in size from approximately 20 kW to 4 MW of capacity, with bond allocations ranging from roughly $45,000 to $4 million per project.
‘The nation's exponential increase in the demand for energy, which is expected to grow by 39 percent by 2030, along with the push to reduce greenhouse gas emissions only enhances the value of CREBs financing,’ says James M. Andrew, administrator of the rural utilities service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. ‘Given that rural electric cooperatives serve 12 percent of the U.S. population, their investment in renewable energy is very important.’
