The Rural Energy for America Program finances renewable generation and efficiency for rural small businesses and producers — and energy projects live or die on production and offtake assumptions.
Current windows, source checks and program-specific study treatment are maintained in the USDA feasibility-study funding calendar. Older dates below are historical, not confirmation of a current opening. Requirements and funding availability can change.
Grant/guarantee distinction: USDA’s March 31, 2026 announcement pauses further grant awards pending new rules and a NOFO, with its stated financial-assistance-agreement exception. Guaranteed loans continue. Do not assume older grant windows or study-expense treatment remain available.
Firm-wide engagement figures are distinct from project-specific findings and their stated source periods.
REAP, administered through USDA Rural Development, supports renewable energy systems and energy-efficiency improvements for agricultural producers and rural small businesses through grants and guaranteed loans. The feasibility analysis for an energy asset differs structurally from a building: revenue is a physical production forecast multiplied by a price, and both halves require independent evidence.
On the production side, the study tests the resource assessment — solar irradiance, biogas feedstock volumes, wind resource — and the system design against it, drawing on data from sources such as the U.S. Energy Information Administration for price benchmarks. On the revenue side, the offtake structure governs everything: net metering, power purchase agreements, avoided-cost displacement, and renewable-attribute sales each carry different counterparty and policy risk, and the pro forma must price that risk rather than assume the rate card holds for twenty-five years.
REAP projects routinely stack the grant, the guaranteed loan, federal tax credits, accelerated depreciation, and state incentives. The study’s sources-and-uses must reconcile the stack honestly — including timing, since tax benefits arrive on a different calendar than construction draws — and the coverage analysis must work both with and without the incentive layers that are not contractually committed.
Wert-Berater scopes REAP analysis to the applicable grant or guaranteed-loan rules and technical-report requirements. OneRD guaranteed-loan requirements must not be assumed to govern a future grant notice.
President, Wert-Berater, Inc. — independent feasibility study consultants since 1998. 4,000+ engagements completed across all 50 states and internationally, evaluating $43.8 billion in project value for SBA, USDA, EB-5, conventional, and institutional financing decisions. Fiduciary duty runs to the lender and agency in every engagement.
+1 310-857-2443 ext. 800 · email · 1968 South Coast Hwy, Ste 2382, Laguna Beach, CA 92651 · 111 Town Square Pl Ste 1238 PMB 657834, Jersey City, NJ 07310 · 539 W. Commerce St #8486, Dallas, TX 75208 · 66 W Flagler Street, Suite 900, PMB 12704, Miami, FL 33130
Schedule a ConversationIndependent feasibility studies since 1998 — 4,000+ engagements, $43.8 billion in evaluated project value. Standard delivery in 10 to 15 business days. Fiduciary duty to the lender and agency.
Legal disclosure. Wert-Berater, Inc. offices are mailing addresses only. Following the COVID-19 pandemic the firm has elected to work remotely; its office locations receive mail and are not staffed for visitors or in-person meetings. Headquarters mailing address: 1968 South Coast Hwy, Ste 2382, Laguna Beach, CA 92651.
Wert-Berater, Inc. is an independent provider of feasibility studies and other related services. The firm does not provide financing or equity investment advice, and does not arrange, broker, or place debt or equity capital of any kind.
All appraisal assignments are performed by Bruce E. Jones, MAI, ASA-GC, BCA, CMEA, a member of the Appraisal Institute since 2006, a staff member of Wert-Berater, Inc. and owner of Special Purpose Realty Valuation.
Thousands of real estate, business, and machinery appraisal and litigation assignments.