For Repowering Assistance Payments to Eligible Biorefineries, the USDA proposes to pay eligible biorefineries that install biomass energy systems to displace fossil fuels. The USDA calls for eligible biorefineries to receive a payment equal to 50% of the cost of installing eligible systems, with a cap at $5 million.
Finally, under the Advanced Biofuel Payment Program, the USDA proposes establishing a payment program for eligible producers of advanced biofuels produced from renewable biomass, excluding corn kernel starch.
Comments on the proposed rules must be received by June 15. See the USDA press release and the proposed rules for the Biorefinery Assistance Guaranteed Loans (PDF 215 KB), the Repowering Assistance Payments (PDF 96 KB), and the Advanced Biofuel Payment Program (PDF 1.3 MB), as published in the April 16 edition of the Federal Register.
The USDA also announced an initiative to help agricultural producers transition to more energy efficient operations. Funding will be available for individual on-farm energy audits. Approximately 1,000 energy audits in 29 states will be funded with $2 million provided through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) in fiscal year 2010.
Energy audits will be individually tailored to ensure coverage of each farm's primary energy uses, such as milk cooling, irrigation pumping, heating and cooling of livestock production facilities, manure collection and transfer, grain drying, and other common on-farm activities. See the USDA press release and the EQIP Web site.
AIA Names Top Ten Green Buildings for 2010
The American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment (COTE) has named this year's top 10 examples of sustainable architecture and green design.
Many of the new buildings have received or are expected to earn LEED Platinum certification, the highest level of LEED certification. Awardees range from a prototype for mass single-family home construction in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans to the world's largest LEED Platinum project - a new international research university in Saudi Arabia. There are also examples of a mixed-use high rise, an art gallery, and an elementary school. Winners are located in six states-California, Connecticut, Louisiana, New York, Oregon, and Virginia-and in Canada and Saudi Arabia.
Most of the buildings make use of geothermal heat pumps, daylighting, shading, natural ventilation, and passive solar heating. Architects also employed energy efficiency technologies such as radiant heating and cooling, cool roofs, energy efficient appliances and equipment, and evaporative cooling with reclaimed water. Some use recycled materials and green roofs, while others generate renewable energy with solar, and one (Twelve West, in Portland, Oregon) features roof-mounted wind turbines. See the AIA press release and the AIA/COTE Top Ten Green Projects Web site.
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EREE Network News is a weekly publication of the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE).
