The Haines Brewing Company will soon use solar panels to help power their operation with assistance from a federal grant that aims to increase renewable energy usage for small businesses.

The United States Department of Agriculture’s Rural Energy for America Program provides guaranteed loan financing and grant funding to agricultural producers and rural small businesses to purchase or install renewable energy systems or make energy efficiency improvements.

The grant pays for 25 percent of a project’s total cost after it’s completed. Brewing Company co-owner Jeanne Kitayama said the solar panel project is two years in the making. Once they get the panels hooked up and operational they will receive the rebate.

“It’s on the grid tie system,” Kitayama said of their new panels. “We don’t have enough (solar energy) to exceed our electrical needs but it will hopefully cut our bill down by a third or more. We have 16 on the roof and 16 on the pole.”

Jessie Huff, USDA energy and public information coordinator, helped the brewery and Haines Packing apply for and receive grant funds.

Haines Packing secured grant funds after installing energy efficient freezers. Energy efficiency projects require an energy audit or assessment. Huff said Southeast Conference provides financial assistance to businesses who want to complete such an energy audit.

“Having a business or entity like Southeast Conference provide these energy audits at a lower cost is helping people be able to apply to the program,” Huff said.

The Department of Agriculture provides two competitive grants for small and large projects each year. The grant terms include a $2,500 minimum and $500,000 maximum rebate for renewable energy system projects and $1,500 minimum and $250,000 maximum rebate for energy efficiency grants.

Huff said around $400,000 in grant funding has been available in past years for rural Alaska businesses and that in some years Alaskan businesses did not use up all of Alaska’s grant funding. When this happens “our state’s money returns to the national office and is redistributed across the country, but this year applications are picking up, and we might have a real competition for the money.”

A business must design and know how much a project will cost before it turns in an application.

“Basically businesses can apply at any time and you have to have a complete application in before you spend any money,” Huff said. “If you spend money before a complete application is in then that money is not eligible in the applicant’s total project cost.”

Huff said she works with small businesses and scores their applications to determine if they are competitive with other applications across the state.

The next grant application deadline is this spring, with a date to be determined.

For more information, call Huff at 907-761-7768 or visit rd.usda.gov.