Farmers and agribusinesses eyeing ways to use renewable energy in their operations can now get federal loans to move projects forward.
Farm Credit Canada will offer a new FCC Energy Loan to help farmers and agribusinesses move toward producing their own renewable energy.
Available starting Monday (March 1), the FCC Energy Loan is meant to help farms and agribusinesses buy and install on-farm energy sources such as biogas, geothermal, wind or solar power.
For this loan FCC said it will offer an interest term of up to five years at variable or fixed rates and with monthly, quarterly, semi-annual and annual payments available.
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“There are sources of energy all around Canadian farmyards and we’re helping producers invest in the technologies needed to tap those opportunities,” federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said Monday, announcing the program while addressing the Canadian Federation of Agriculture in Ottawa.
FCC cited a recent FCC Vision survey in which 60 per cent of those surveyed are thinking about new ways to find financial value by reducing their environmental impact.
The survey, completed in November 2009 by 1,172 farmers and agribusiness operators across Canada revealed that 37 per cent of those looking at reducing their impact are also considering the use of renewable energy sources in their operations.
“We’re definitely seeing an increase in the number of people across the country that are interested in renewable energy sources to reduce costs and demand on the energy grid,” FCC CEO Greg Stewart said in the same release Monday.
Island energy
Ottawa in late January pledged funding to a provincial-level plan for on-farm renewable energy use on Prince Edward Island.
That plan includes a Renewable Energy Initiative, under which farmers can get financial support for use of solar, biogas, wind and/or biomass as sources of energy. A farm energy audit is required to help eligible farmers work out which source and what equipment best meets their needs.
A separate P.E.I. program, the BioEconomy Crop Initiative, calls for an evaluation of the economic and environmental benefits of crops such as fall rye, perennial grasses and hybrid willows for renewable energy use.
Ottawa, through the federal AgriFlexibility fund, pledged $4.2 million and $1.7 million for the two P.E.I. programs, respectively. The province said it will put up $2.8 million and $1.2 million for the respective programs.
The P.E.I. funding is subject to the projects meeting eligibility requirements and the signing of contribution agreements, the governments noted.
