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Gov. Cuomo announces plan for dairy farm energy production program, dairy expansion assistance

Posted 2/4/13

A dairy farm energy production program and help for dairies that want to expand have been announced by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office. An Anaerobic Digester Biogas-to-Electricity Program will have …

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Gov. Cuomo announces plan for dairy farm energy production program, dairy expansion assistance

Posted

A dairy farm energy production program and help for dairies that want to expand have been announced by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office.

An Anaerobic Digester Biogas-to-Electricity Program will have double the previous incentive for renewable bio-energy projects to reduce electricity costs, and a $450,000 grant pool has been set up to help dairy farmers with business planning and growth.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) will double the maximum incentive amount from $1 million to up to $2 million per installation for farmers to install equipment on their farms that turns organic waste produced by cows into electricity.

And the $450,000 for a Dairy Acceleration Program (DAP) will provide grants and coordinate funding and technical programs to help farmers interested in expanding their operations or increasing their efficiency.

DAP will also provide grants of up to $5,000 per dairy farm for financial analysis, planning for growth, executing business plans to expand, or other operational needs of the farm, such as adoption of best management practices, new techniques and technologies for growth, or engineering and design for expansion.

Ideas for these initiatives came out of Cuomo’s “Yogurt Summit,” which convened last summer to hear ideas from industry leaders, farmers and other stakeholders to ensure that the yogurt industry continues to grow and create jobs in New York.