U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Powering Affordable Clean Energy (PACE) program
Carroll White REMC is working on three new and exciting projects made possible, in part, thanks to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Powering Affordable Clean Energy (PACE) program. These new projects are three Microgrid projects that represent an investment of more than $29 million in improved infrastructure with an operational life of up to 40 years.
The PACE Program seeks to address key priorities:
- Reduce climate pollution and increase resilience to the impacts of climate change through economic support to rural communities
- Ensure all rural residents have equitable access to Rural Development (RD) programs and benefits from RD funded projects
- Assist rural communities to recover economically through more and better market opportunities and through improved infrastructure
There are three projects on separate sites. They are:
- Rose Acre Farms (RAF), White County, at 5408 W. State Road 16, Monon, IN
- Rose Acre Farms (RAF), Pulaski County, at 8596 W 700 S, Francesville, IN
- Waste No Energy (WNE) anaerobic digester, at 300 S 800 E, Monticello, IN
The two projects at the Rose Acre sites will include a renewable energy resource (Solar) and an Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) at each site. These two projects will provide RAF with power in the event of an outage. The third project at Waste No Energy will include a BESS, also capable of a micro-grid formation, that will operate in conjunction with the anaerobic digester. This project could benefit a small portion of Carroll White REMC members in the local area in the event of an outage who are a part of that feeder line which is the purpose of a micro-grid.
Purpose & Benefits
The systems that will be in place at the two Rose Acre sites provides resiliency measures interconnected to the electric grid near this essential food producer which will help ensure an uninterrupted food supply that is distributed both locally and nationwide while also helping to fund infrastructure upgrades to the related substations.
The BESS system at the Waste No Energy site would support an existing renewable energy resource that creates sustainable fertilizer substitutes for agricultural use from the anaerobic digester.
Together these projects will provide stabile, clean and resilient generation sources to agricultural producers located within the Carroll White REMC service territory.
To view the Community Benefit Plan for the Powering Affordable Clean Energy Program please click here. There will be updates posted on this page of the Carroll White REMC website as these projects move forward.
If you have any questions, comments or feedback about the three projects please share them with Carroll White REMC by e-mail at info@cwremc.coop.