U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Deputy Secretary Xochitl Torres Small announced the following five new PACE investments in Kentucky:

• Bluestem Energy Solutions TEC1 LLC plans to use a ~$6.6 million investment to build a solar power facility in Allen County that will produce 5 megawatts of renewable energy, enough to power more than 900 homes each year.
• Lock 9 Hydro Partners LLC plans to use a ~$19.3 million investment to build a run-of-river hydroelectric plant on the Kentucky River generating 3 megawatts of renewable energy for Jessamine County. The project is expected to power 1,600 homes each year.
• Lock 10 Hydro Partners LLC plans to use a ~$18.9 million investment to build a run-of-river hydroelectric plant on the Kentucky River generating 3 megawatts of renewable energy for Madison County. The project is expected to provide enough electricity to power 1,600 homes each year.
• Lock 11 Hydro Partners LLC plans to use a ~$16.6 million investment to build a run-of-river hydroelectric plant on the Kentucky River generating 3 megawatts of renewable energy for Estill County. The project is expected to provide enough electricity to power 1,600 homes each year.
• Lock 13 Hydro Partners LLC plans to use a ~$17.7 million investment to build a run-of-river hydroelectric plant on the Kentucky River generating 3 megawatts of renewable energy for Lee County, which is also an RPN community. The project is expected to power 1,600 homes each year.

The projects in Kentucky and Nevada are part of the USDA’s Powering Affordable Clean Energy (PACE) program, which is funded by President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, the largest investment in rural electrification since President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Rural Electrification Act into law in 1936.

Torres Small announced the funding today during a visit to the site of a planned solar power facility in Pahrump. The region is prone to wildfires and outages but will soon have an uninterrupted supply of electricity thanks to a facility that will generate and store energy from the sun.

“Rural people deserve continued energy opportunities as demand for clean energy increases,” Deputy Secretary Torres Small said. “The Biden-Harris Administration is working to make sure efforts to tackle climate change also help grow the local economy. These USDA investments will lower costs for Americans and create good-paying jobs in rural communities for years to come.”

Valley Electric Association plans to use an $80.3 million investment to install a 37-megawatt solar power generation and storage system to serve Pahrump and the Fish Lake Valley region. The project will strengthen the energy grid, lower rates for the association’s members and keep critical services powered in the region. It will produce enough electricity to power 3,500 homes. Valley Electric serves communities participating in the Rural Partners Network (RPN), a USDA-led collaboration between federal, state and local partners to help underserved communities access federal funding.