On June 11th, the USDA issued a Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for certain provisions of the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) in order to provide matching payments to persons or entities for collecting, harvesting, storing and transporting (CHST) of eligible materials delivered to qualified biomass conversion facilities. Comments are due on August 10th. A copy of the NOFA is available here.

On June 12th, the USDA issued a NOFA for Repowering Assistance Payments to Eligible Biorefineries to encourage the use of renewable biomass as a replacement fuel source for fossil fuels used to provide process heat or power in the operate of eligible biorefineries. This program provides for grants and loan guarantees for construction and retrofitting of biorefineries for the production of advanced biofuels. Grants are provided for construction of demonstration-scale biorefineries and loan guarantees are authorized for the development and construction of commercial-scale biorefineries that use technologies that are either pre-commercial or commercially available. Grants are limited to 30% of project costs and loan guarantees are limited to 90% of the principal and interest on loans. The maximum principal amount of a loan guarantee may not exceed $250 million or 80% of the project cost. Applications for participating in this program must be received between July 1st and November 1st of this year. A copy of the NOFA is available here.

On June 12th, the USDA issued a Notice of Contract Proposal (NOCP) for Payments to Eligible Advanced Biofuel Producers (formerly the “CCC Bioenergy Program”) to support and ensure an expanding production of advanced biofuels. The program is intended to support Federal policy calling for greater production and use of advanced biofuels. Applications for participating in this program for FY09 must be received between June 12th and August 11th. A copy of the NOCP is available here.