Idaho's farmers are searching for ways to make money, in the face of low commodity prices, and a worsening shortage of irrigation water. A traveling workshop about renewable energy may help them do that.

Gerry Galinato, a principal energy specialist, is part of that workshop.

“There's about $23 million available nationwide, so we're trying to educate farmers and encourage them to apply for grants,” he says.

The idea of the workshops is to get people not only interested in applying for grants, but to let them know the money will go toward projects in other states if they don't apply.

Idaho was able to get two projects funded last year, each totaling $500,000 each, to build wind farms. But there’s has plenty of room to expand.

The money is available through the USDA farm bill, but not a lot of people actually apply for the grants.

Daryl Moser, the director of business programs for the USDA, says, “It takes a fair amount of advance work, you really need to have a project that's really on or in process already.”

Eligible renewable energy products include solar, wind and geothermal.