President Biden’s new energy secretary, Jennifer Granholm, is ready to release $ 40 billion in Department of Energy loans, the former Michigan governor told CERAWeek on Wednesday.
Granholm selected Jigar Shah, the founder of SunEdison, to lead the loan program as director of the loan program office.
The DoE loan program has been in place for years and is responsible, according to IHS Markit, for supporting the first five public-scale solar projects in the United States. More unsustainably, the DoE loan program is also recognized for spreading $ 528 million to Solyndra – the solar panel maker that went bankrupt two years after receiving DoE funding.
The program, originally created in 2005 under US President Bush, added a renewable energy component four years later under President Obama.
The largest loan, issued in pieces from 2014 to 2019, was given to VOGTLE for $ 12 billion for the construction of Vogtle Units 3 & 4 – something the DoE invented “the next generation of advanced nuclear reactors in the country” . The reactors are likely to miss the promised operating dates in November 2021.
The second largest loan in the program, issued in 2009, was given to Ford Motor Company in the amount of $ 5.9 billion, in order to modernize the facilities to improve fuel efficiency.
The two loans represent more than half of the nearly $ 30 billion in outstanding loans issued by the DoE.
The loan program is part of President Biden’s aggressive push for cleaner energy, with Granholm being a second perfectly green chair.
The $ 40 billion funds have been available and have been waiting for payments for years, but with the new administration, expectations are that we will see more clean energy funds.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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