Jackie O’s was approved to receive $44,119 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to pay for new solar panels.
A local Athens brewery will soon be powered by the sun.
Jackie O’s Brewery will be receiving new solar panels to power its production site on 25 Campbell St. thanks to a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The local craft beer company was approved to receive $44,119 in May to help finance the $176,500 project as a part of the Rural Energy for America Grant Program, said Randy Monhemius, a business program specialist for the USDA’s Columbus office.
“Continuing our commitment to sustainability, Jackie O’s is proud to announce that we are the recipients of a federal grant that will help our taproom and production brewery run on roof-mounted solar energy panels,” spokeswoman Alli Maloney said in a blog post on the Jackie O’s website.
The brewing company will install 298 solar panels at the site, which will generate more than 100,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year and account for about 72 percent of the company’s current electricity usage.
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“Sustainability means giving back all we take, but that is impossible in 2015,” Maloney said. “Jackie O’s is not yet entirely sustainable, but we strive to be.”
The panels will be installed by local distributor Third Sun Solar, located at 762 W. Union St.
Applying for the grant was “a complicated process” that was led by Michelle Corrigan Oestrike, wife of Jackie O’s owner Art Oestrike, according to the blog post.
“All the projects submitted are approved based on scoring criteria that outlines specific things that we have to work at,” Monhemius said. “Jackie O’s scored very well.”
Out of about 120 total applications received by the USDA in Ohio, the Jackie O’s project was one of only 53 that were funded, Monhemius said.
Scorers primarily look at the amount of energy that will be generated, the amount of energy per grant dollar and the size of the business in order to rank the projects.
Once all of the projects are scored, the top ranking projects receive grant money.
This year, the program had about $2.1 million to spend on grants, but Monhemius said a portion of that has yet to be allocated.
Jackie O’s applied for the grant during the first round of funding, which had an April 30 deadline. The USDA is still scoring applications for the second round, which had a June 30 deadline.
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Applicants could receive up to $500,000 in funding, or 25 percent of the total cost of the project, whichever is less, Monhemius said.
The grant program has been in effect since 2002 and was established under the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act.
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