Agriculture & Renewable Energy:
What's the connection?

Rural interests are mobilizing around renewable energy throughout the west and across the nation. What's driving formation of these networks is the growing awareness that renewable energy is a pathway to enhanced farm income and the revitalization of rural communities. This vision provides hope in the face of an uncertain future. Agricultural communities are facing record-breaking input costs, foreign trade challenges, and pressure for significant reductions in federal farm subsidies.

In the face of difficult challenges agriculture can…

• Dramatically increase the production of liquid transportation fuels (e.g. ethanol and biodiesel);
• Generate electricity by harnessing wind and solar energy and capturing and converting biogas emissions; and
• Produce biomass and turn crop residues, agriculture byproducts and wastes into value added energy feedstocks.

Agriculture in the intermountain region will play a significant role in the development of:

• Wind Power
• Agricultural Biomass for Power
• Biofuels for Transportation
• Solar
• Geothermal
• Small Hydro
• Sequestration of Carbon