The U.S. Department of Agriculture is investing over $93,000 in Wyoming to build or improve renewable energy infrastructure and to help rural communities, agricultural producers and businesses lower energy costs in Wyoming. 

In the Big Horn Basin, the USDA is investing in the following projects:

• Ryan Lembke will use a $18,827 grant to install a 22.9 kW solar array on the Lembke Ranch in Lovell to power irrigation and operations. The ranch will realize a savings of $3,345 annually.

• L&M Restoration will use a $19,136 grant to install a 24.8 kW solar array on the historic Mead Building in downtown Greybull. The building is currently undergoing a restoration and will house a hotel and retail space for local businesses. The solar array will bring $2,946 in energy cost savings annually.

• Wildman Farm’s Incorporated in Manderson will use a $5,885 grant to install a 7.82 kW grid-tied roof mount solar array, saving the family agricultural operation $1,243 annually.

• Jay Richardson in Worland, dba Jay’s Detail, will use a $11,364 grant to install a 16.8 kW grid-tied solar array. It’s expected to save the company $2,988 per year.

Other projects around the state include new solar systems at Laramie’s Coal Creek Coffee Company and at Margo’s Pottery in Buffalo.

Nationwide, USDA is financing $129 million of these investments through the Rural Energy for America Program. This program provides funding to help agricultural producers and rural small businesses purchase and install renewable energy systems and make energy efficiency improvements. These climate-smart investments will conserve and generate more than 379 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) in rural America, which equates to enough electricity to power 35,677 homes per year. 

“USDA continues to prioritize climate-smart infrastructure to help rural America build back better, stronger and more equitably than ever before,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement. “We recognize that lowering energy costs for small businesses and agricultural producers helps to expand economic development and employment opportunities for people in America’s rural towns and communities.”

Vilsack said the investments “demonstrate how the Biden-Harris Administration has put rural communities at the heart of climate action and climate-smart solutions.”