About Government Grants for Green Energy
"Going green" through renewable energy is one way that has been suggested to decrease energy consumption and reduce dependence upon fossil fuels. Going green, however, costs a lot of money and may be out of reach for individuals, small companies and farms. In order to meet the need for renewable energy, energy efficiency and "green" energy, federal and state governments have a system of grants available to ease the financial burden of "going green."
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Significance
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Green energy is classified as a system by which energy is produced without adverse environmental impact through the release of harmful chemicals, radiation or noxious gasses. There are four basic types of green energy, including water power, wind power, solar power and geothermal. Water uses the movement of streams, rivers, waterfalls and even tides to generate electricity. Wind uses the movement of air in a similar manner. Solar energy captures the sun's rays and converts it into electricity. Geothermal uses the constant temperature of the ground to heat and cool houses and buildings through a series of fans or "pumps," which move air underground where it is warmed or cooled to a certain temperature before being circulated through the structure.
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The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is offering grants from the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP). It is designed to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy investment in rural areas. Sparsely populated areas such as farmlands and American Indian reservations are costly to bring energy to, requiring hundreds of miles of transmission wires and support equipment to power relatively few homes or businesses. REAP offers grants for farms and rural small businesses to invest in green energy such as biomass (the conversion of organic waste or produce into energy), as well as solar, wind, water and geothermal technologies (see Additional Resources, below).
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The United States Department of Energy (DoE) also offers grants for investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency. Most of these grants and programs are aimed at building and home manufacturers to increase the insulation on homes, or to reduce the environmental impact of buildings. For example, a construction company or home builder may receive a grant for installing a geothermal heating and cooling system instead of a conventional fossil-fuel system in a home or building.
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For taxpayers who want to install solar cells or other green energy producers, the federal government offers tax-break incentives, reducing the taxable burden on consumers. Also, states such as California and Ohio offer direct grants and additional tax incentives to homeowners. Ohio, for example, offers certification programs that allow homeowners to avoid property taxes on their homes for as long as 15 years. California is using a $1 billion grant to assist low-income homeowners to invest in renewable energy sources for their homes. See Additional Resources, below, for more information.
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The DoE's Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) is offering grants and other assistance to universities, corporations and industries that invest in energy efficiency and renewable energy. It is hoped that by offering large institutions a financial incentive to traditional fossil-fuel-created energy, the overall price for such energy will be reduced for everyone. In the 2007 fiscal year, the DoE's EERE program granted $574 million to such institutions in return for their investment in renewable energy.
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Comments
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Hum, this green energy grant jazz is a bit confusing at several levels. I have search engine myself mad of the Web for several hours looking at all that grant application jazz after grant application jazz. finally I decided to look up that promising to someone like me green energy movement stuff that seems to be growing quite a bit of momentum under Obama. I looked at the list of technologies and read some comments too. Now once again I'm lost with a reasonable doubt that this grant jazz is not all it's cracked up to be. It seems to me that fossil fuels are going to be difficult if not impossible to replace, without an easy to produce cheaper substitute. I don't embrace wind or solar because they are not that reliable, especially in my state. I'm a bit shocked after looking at dozens of these federal applications most centered around that higher learning educational jazz. I do believe education is important but not the whole universe to some. Thinking out-of-the-box is what separates real genius from the average. Naturally a man or woman blessed with a photographic memory stuns their friends and family members alike by graduating from some accredited college before the age of 15. Where are these geniuses now? Employed by the Pentagon designing weapons of mass death? If they were given this extraordinary ability to absorb knowledge why haven't they figured out (since they're so much smarter than the rest of us) some usable form of perpetual motion or gravity energy generation physics, just to name two out of many. If this genius caters to the medical profession what about cures for cancer and other various diseases? I may not have a photographic memory or have graduated from some fancy college either however, I do think out-of-the-box, that's why I'm smarter than a textbook quoting parasite. That's why I'm trying to get a green energy grant to research & develop what I believe to be the next generation of infinite energy production. Yes, I've read all about geothermal and I've seen Hoover Dam and was not that impressed by either. We need a moon shot in technology right now especially since gas prices continue to skyrocket. We need to take advantage of thinking in more than just two out of focus dimensions. I acquired some info on a research and development federal grant yesterday and today before and the day before that. after several frustrating hours of useless pondering through meaningless protocols coupled with red tape I got nowhere as usual. it seems to me that most grants center around college educations, other than developing new rewarding forms of unlimited energy to free us from those foreign sources. My proposal would be simple. Thus, my primary goal is to add 3 items to that short list of alternative forms of energy.
