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.
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 prepares REAP studies within the same Reg 5001 compliance framework as B&I engagements, with the energy-specific production and offtake analysis the asset demands.
President, Wert-Berater, Inc. — independent feasibility study consultants since 1998. 4,000+ engagements completed across all 50 states and internationally, evaluating $41.2 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.
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Schedule a ConversationIndependent feasibility studies since 1998 — 4,000+ engagements, $41.2 billion in evaluated project value. Standard delivery in 10 to 15 business days. Fiduciary duty to the lender and agency.
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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.