Funding is intended for projects that increase wood product manufacturing capacity and promote the use of renewable wood energy. Proposals incorporating commercially proven technologies will be most competitive.
This funding opportunity is intended for shovel ready projects that will not require additional funding or time to complete after the award period. Examples of eligible projects include, but are not limited to:
- Install a thermally led community wood energy system for heating, cooling, and/or electricity that replaces fossil fuels such as coal, oil, propane, or natural gas.
- Purchase and install manufacturing equipment at a mass timber production facility.
- Expand a sawmill to add higher value production lines that incorporate innovative technologies and cost cutting measures.
- Purchase and install equipment at a new facility to produce biofuels from forest residues.
Priority will be given to projects that:
- Are located where markets are needed for low-value or low-quality wood.
- Are located where the project will aid forest restoration.
- Use or retrofit an existing sawmill facility where the average annual unemployment rate exceeds the national average unemployment rate by more than one percent in calendar year 2019.
- Use the most stringent control technology that has been required or achieved in practice for a wood-fired boiler and will operate in a location with limited access to natural gas pipelines.
- Support, benefit, or engage communities that are historically underserved, marginalized, and adversely affected by persistent poverty or inequality (pursuant to Executive Order 13985, Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government).
Learn more here.
