A Rural Energy for America Program grant helped a New England brewery become energy independent, yet future funding for similar projects remains uncertain.
Blasty Bough Brewing Company in Epson, New Hampshire secured a Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) grant that enabled the brewery to install a 182-module, 87 kW ground-mount solar array that offsets more than 100% of their energy consumption.
The brewery is located at the McClary Hill Farm and was founded by David Stewart who said he had been interested in going solar since 2018. He enlisted ReVision Energy, New England’s largest solar installer, to design and install the solar, and ReVision walked Stewart through the grant application process.
The installation took about five weeks and was completed in November 2023. It includes nine SMA inverters and 480 W Qcells modules mounted on APA Ready Racks.
Today the 87 kW installation is generating between 800 kWh to 1,000 kWh per month more energy than the brewery is currently using, with the rest sent back to the grid.
“We sized the system to match our expansion plans,” said Dave. The brewery will eventually use all the electricity it generates. The brewery plans to switch its heating system from oil to air-source heat pumps and to install EV chargers in the future.
Stewart estimated that they save about $23,000 a year in electricity costs. The system, which has a 25-year warranty and 40-year estimated lifespan, is offsetting 69 tons of CO2 a year, the equivalent to removing 15 gasoline-powered vehicles from the road for a year or avoiding 69,629 pounds of coal combustion. The payback period is estimated to be less than five years.
Today Blasty Bough is more than just a brewery. The business offers a farm-to-table experience with a local farmer providing vegetables and eggs, while sheep from a nearby farm graze among the rows of solar modules. There are also nature trails, a live music venue, an area for community events and overnight accommodations on the property.
“Beer is no longer the only drive – people come for the full experience, and sustainability is a big part of that,” said Dave.
Stewart said the sheep are a low-impact way of keeping the vegetation down around the rows of solar. Combining crop production or animal grazing with solar is termed “agrivoltaics,” which is considered a “win-win” by research firm Allied Analytics, which forecasts the agrivoltaic market can reach $9.3 billion by 2031, growing at an annual rate of over 10%.
Blasty Bough applied for a grant from the USDA’s Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) in the March 2023 round. Once Blasty Bough received notice from the USDA that its application was complete, ReVision Energy moved forward with the project with the understanding that the funding would not be awarded for months.
ReVision Energy told pv magazine USA that deciding whether to wait for the actual REAP grant award was a challenge for the business because of the risk in case the grant was not awarded, but ultimately Blasty Bough’s grant application was successful.
The REAP grant covered about one-third of the cost of the Brewery solar project. The USDA grant program is intended to provide guaranteed loan financing and grant funding to agricultural producers and rural small businesses for renewable energy systems or to make energy efficiency improvements. The program was officially created in 2008 through the Farm Bill when Congress combined an energy efficiency program with one that focused on renewable energy. REAP was expanded by the Biden Administration with funding from the Inflation Reduction Act.
Future support for projects such as Blasty Bough’s is uncertain because the White House recently paused disbursement of funds appropriated through both the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
“The USDA’s REAP program has been a game-changer for family farms and small businesses across New England, helping them lower energy costs, strengthen local economies, and reduce their carbon footprint,” said Dan Weeks, vice president of business development at ReVision Energy. “Uncertainty around future funding puts these real, community-level benefits at risk. We hope policymakers recognize how vital this program is for rural prosperity and energy independence.”
