FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

01/21/2025

$485 Million Renewable Energy Grant to Benefit Rural Residents in the Southwest

BENSON, AZ – Electric consumers across the desert Southwest stand to benefit from big investments in renewable energy thanks to an award of more than $485 million to an Arizona electric cooperative. 

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced this week a $485 million award to Arizona Electric Power Cooperative (AEPCO) through its New Empowering Rural America (New ERA) Program. This funding will be used to invest in large-scale solar and battery energy storage system projects benefitting rural cooperatives and public power utilities that serve communities across Arizona and parts of California, Nevada and New Mexico. The funds will also be used to retire AEPCO’s remaining coal assets by 2028.

Patrick Ledger, AEPCO Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer, discussed the importance of this funding in transitioning from older, less efficient electric generating assets that came online in the 1960s and 1970s. “The New ERA program will enable us to make major new investments in renewable power, which will modernize our fleet, substantially lower emissions and help keep costs stable for years to come.”

AEPCO is a not-for-profit generation and transmission cooperative that provides wholesale power and energy services to utilities in Arizona, California, Nevada, and New Mexico. Projects supported by New ERA program funding will enable its cooperative and public power members to diversify their power portfolios through broad participation in large, competitively-priced renewable energy projects. 

In an area of the country with plenty of sunshine all year, the new resources will include 730 megawatts of solar and 2,910 megawatt hours of battery energy storage. The company expects that these new renewable resources will help AEPCO reduce emissions by about 70 percent. 

“These new projects will produce a tremendous amount of energy, and the battery storage will enable us to move that energy to cover evening peaks or to dispatch it according to each member’s individual needs,” said Ledger.

The benefits will flow directly to rural communities throughout the desert Southwest, who are often economically disadvantaged and who have not had an opportunity to participate in large-scale lower-price renewable projects.  The New ERA program is the key to bring smaller not-for-profit cooperatives and public power utilities together and making low-cost renewable power accessible to those who cannot develop these resources on their own.