A pair of cooperative projects in Nevada that will provide clean energy while bolstering grid resilience and reliability received a new loan award through the Department of Agriculture’s $1 billion Powering Affordable Clean Energy program.
USDA awarded an $80.3 million PACE loan to Valley Electric Association to help build a 35-megawatt energy storage system to serve Pahrump and a 2-megawatt solar power and energy storage system to serve the Fish Lake Valley region. The projects will produce enough electricity to serve around 3,500 homes and help mitigate price volatility and grid resilience risks in the area.
Fish Lake Valley is fed by a 55-kilovolt radial line that crosses an area of extreme wildfire risk, raising the potential for public safety power shutoffs for co-op members.
The investment was part of $140 million in new PACE support announced Aug. 29 and follows a string of co-op awards under the program.
“These projects are projected to greatly benefit Valley’s members. Resiliency and reliability concerns will be addressed specifically at Fish Lake Valley,” Valley Electric CEO Mark Stallons said in a joint statement with Gabe DeGuzman, the co-op’s director of transmission services and load management.
Construction on the projects is slated to start in the second half of 2025 and finish by the first quarter of 2027.
The PACE program, created through the Inflation Reduction Act, provides partially forgivable, low-interest loans for new clean energy and storage projects in rural America.
Valley Electric will receive 20% loan forgiveness as part of its PACE award. In addition, the projects can qualify for direct-pay tax credits championed by NRECA for inclusion in the IRA. The projects are expected to get a 30% direct-pay investment tax credit, with one project also eligible for a 10% bonus incentive for being located in an “energy community” that has lost jobs or revenue from the energy transition.
The partial loan forgiveness and federal tax incentives will cover about $47.3 million of the $80.3 million investment, Valley Electric said.
“With the passage of direct pay legislation and cooperative access to the PACE initiative, our path to owning power supply assets became obvious,” Stallons and DeGuzman said. “Advocacy and policy efforts from NRECA laid the foundation for Valley Electric to receive this award. It truly has been a team effort.”
So far, the USDA has announced more than $655 million in PACE investments, including awards for several co-ops. The department said it expects to announce additional awards through the program in the coming months.
Molly Christian is a staff writer for NRECA.