We are well into the spring season, and spring also means the season of grants. While some deadlines may have already passed, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is accepting loan guarantee applications till June 29, 2012 under its Rural Energy America for America Program (REAP). The REAP program has been a very popular and highly successful program for proliferation of renewable energy and energy efficiency projects of all types, and in all parts of the country.   

A tremendous number of poultry farmers around the southeast have used REAP grant funds to improve the energy efficiency of their poultry growing operations. A very unique and large solar thermal system capable of heating almost 3,000 gallons of water per day was installed on Brinson Farms in Prentiss, Mississippi with assistance from a REAP grant. This solar thermal system heats the process water for a poultry litter and food waste-based anaerobic digester. Read more about this digester system in this month's interview with an "energy-entrepreneur" included in the newsletter.  

REAP is also a big part of the Energy Title of the current federal Farm Bill. As you read this newsletter, the provisions of the 2012 are being hotly debated on Capitol Hill. Energy programs, including REAP, like a lot of other programs are in jeopardy of losing funding. The readers of this newsletter can get the latest updates on the status of the Farm Bill by visiting the website FarmEnergy.org.

The U.S. Department of Energy Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants have also been announced for funding outside-the-box approaches that accelerate the commercialization of clean energy technologies. Check out the SBIR story in this newsletter. I encourage those looking for assistance for developing proposals for this program to contact us as well as check out the MS-FAST program.

Innovation of often attributed to small and nimble firms, and the clean technology sector is no different. According to a study released by the Small Business Administration (SBA) in late 2011, small businesses account for just 8 percent of all U.S. patents, but they hold 14% of green technology patents and almost a third of all patents related to smart grid and solar energy. With many entrepreneurs looking to build new business in this space and investors and economic developers hoping to invest and attract such companies to their communities, finding the hidden gems can be a daunting task. Read about how SBS's Renewable Energy Venture Development Academy can help you in building a better business model for your technology that will appeal to investors and may attract economic incentives. In addition to holding REVDA in August this year, read about other major eventscoming up in which SBS will be playing an active role.

We are continuing our work on second annual report that catalogs renewable energy and energy efficiency projects in Mississippi. We currently have a list of over 200 large and small renewable energy and energy efficiency projects around the state, and encourage our readers to send us information about their project that may be included in the report. Finally, we are focusing significant efforts in building a stronger and more vibrant sustainable energy economy in Mississippi and I hope you will consider joining the Mississippi Biomass and Renewable Energy Council.  

Sumesh Arora, Ph.D.