Despite end of 1705 loan guarantee, DOE financing for solar still available

Despite end of 1705 loan guarantee, DOE financing for solar still availableOn Sept. 30, the Department of Energy made its final commitments to solar and other energy projects under the DOE’s 1705 Loan Guarantee program, promising $4.7 billion in loan guarantees to solar projects alone.

A number of other companies had applied for the loan guarantees but were not able to make the Sept. 30 deadline. However, they may eligible for similar support under another DOE program.

The big winners of the last round of financing were the California Valley Solar Ranch Project, the Desert Sunlight Solar Farm, Antelope Valley Solar Ranch and Project Amp. Each of the projects met their requirements under the program on a near last minute basis, which meant in some circumstances breaking ground and in others finalizing sales of projects.

The 250-megawatt California Valley Solar Ranch Project being developed by SunPower Corp. received a $1.2 billion loan guarantee when the project was sold to NRG Energy. NRG and its partners in Project Amp, Prologis and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, received a $1.4 billion loan guarantee for the project that will put 752 megawatts of photovoltaics on Prologis warehouse rooftops across the U.S.

“Thanks to the DOE supporting programs such as our Amp project, we are confident that cost-competitive distributed solar will become a reality for states throughout the country, given our ability to bring distributed solar to the market in scale,” said NRG spokesperson Lori Neuman. “The DOE’s renewable loan guarantee program provided support to solar projects that use a promising, innovative technology that otherwise would not be able to secure private financing,” she said.

The loan guarantees should also make it easier for future projects to gain financing.

“When we successfully demonstrate these new solar technologies, thanks to the support of loan guarantees, the technologies will become cheaper and proven on a large scale so that NRG and other companies can develop them without public support in the future,” she said.

First Solar’s Desert Sun Solar Farm, a 550-megawatt photovoltaic plant in California, won its loan guarantee of up to nearly $1.2 billion when its sale to NextEra Energy Resources was completed. And First Solar’s 230-megawatt Antelope Valley Solar Ranch, which recently sold to Excelon, won a $646 million loan guarantee.

Other solar projects, including Solar Millennium’s Blythe Solar Project (which changed from concentrated solar power to photovoltaics for its first phase) and First Solar’s Topaz Solar Farm said they wouldn’t meet the deadline and opted to look for private financing options.

Yet others, like the planned Fotowatio PV solar generating facility in Nevada, Calisolar Inc. for silicon manufacturing process production and SolarCity’s SolarStrong Project to put photovoltaics on on-base homes for veterans across the country, could meet the deadlines, according to DOE spokesperson William Gibbons.

Other generation projects were ready to proceed and met all the program’s requirements, according to Gibbons.

“It is also important to note that the generation projects have a power-purchase agreement in place,” he said. “Some of these projects may be able to seek funding under the 1703 program. [DOE’s Loan Programs Office] is currently working to see which ones may be appropriate for 1703.”

Image courtesy of SunPower.