State Energy Program Grant

Updated October 6, 2009

The 2009-2010 Biomass Energy Grant Program was announced on October 6, 2009 by Governor Timothy Kaine. It will provide up to $10 million for the installation, demonstration, or commercialization of qualifying biomass or waste-to-energy technologies and applications in commercial, industrial, or institutional facilities. Assistance will be provided in the form of grants to be leveraged with other public and private funds.

The Biomass Energy Grant Program (“Program”) is a State Energy Program administered by DMME. The purpose of the Program is to provide incentives to businesses and governments to take actions to diversity the state’s energy supply sources, reduce dependence on foreign oil, and mitigate the effects of climate change. The use of waste materials from logging, manufacturing, agricultural, or municipal operations, as well as energy crops or other biomass fuels and residuals can provide a significant economic benefit to the Commonwealth. Besides displacement of traditional fuels, reduction of wastes disposal costs and other environmental impacts, and provision of additional revenue crops for farmers, demonstration of successful alternative energy technologies can encourage their future consideration by others and demonstrate cost effectiveness to ease access to capital.

For the purposes of this Program, “Biomass” means a power source that is comprised of, but not limited to, combustible residues or gases from forest products, manufacturing, agricultural and orchard crops, waste products from livestock and poultry operations and food processing, urban wood wastes, municipal solid waste, municipal liquid waste treatment operations, and landfill gas.

Click on the following links to download an application and application guidance:
Application Biomass Energy Grant Program - (Word)    (PDF)
Application Guidance Biomass Energy Grant Program - (Word)    (PDF)
Application Modifications Biomass Energy Grant Program

State Facility Renewable Energy Utilization Program: This initiative, when implemented, is intended to allow Virginia agencies to lead by example and to utilize solar and wind energy at their facilities. Grants will be awarded based on criteria including but not limited to recipient matching share, geographic distribution, energy savings, educational potential and other factors.

Local Government and Public School Renewable Energy Utilization Program: This initiative, when implemented, is intended to allow local government agencies to gain experience and exposure to solar and wind power technologies at their facilities. Projects under this initiative will be ranked with similar criteria to state facilities, with an increased level of emphasis on systems located at schools and coupled with renewable curriculum.

Economic Development Programs: Virginia proposes to use $10 million for economic development programs to develop clean energy business and industry. The Commonwealth plans to allocate this money within three programs that range from traditional business support to innovative equity investment instruments derived from venture capital models. All of these programs are expected to highly leverage federal dollars with investments from non-federal sources. Some programs will also generate program revenue to sustain the infrastructure-building efforts after federal funds no longer are available for this purpose.

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