Export-Import Bank of the United States last Friday (June 11) supported the development of U.S.-based Solyndra LLC’s largest installation completed to date, a 3-megawatt installation in Belgium. The installation is atop a Delhaize supermarket distribution center in Zellik, a suburb of Brussels, and will provide it with power. The Ex-Im Bank made the $10.3 million loan guarantee to KBC Bank NV in Belgium under its Renewable Express program.

The Ex-Im Bank is a federal agency that helps U.S.-companies expand their presence in international markets, creating more jobs in the U.S., at no cost to American taxpayers. Renewable Express offers loan guarantees to foreign financiers for projects using renewable products developed in the U.S.

“We started it off in 2010. There was a ramp up to create demand and interest in the program,” said Craig O’Conner, director of the Ex-Im Bank Office of Renewable Energy.

Solyndra applied for the loan guarantee just 41 days before it was issued, said Ex-Im Bank spokesperson Linda Formella.

“We’re aiming to streamline that financing process,” she said. “We’re basically guaranteeing the loan that’s being provided by the bank in Belgium.”

“The important thing about that deal is we can guarantee loans in Euros. We’re also looking to increase our partnerships with banks,” O’Conner said. “It allows banks to extend length of loan and also to lower interest rates.”

For instance, the loan extended by KBC Bank carries a low interest rate and a repayment term of 18 years.

Since its inception, the product has issued approximately $75 million in loan guarantees, according to O’Conner. The product doesn’t have a ceiling, either. “

It’s demand driven,” he said. “We’re working with our exporters to support them wherever opportunities present themselves.”

As such, the Ex-Im Bank is looking to expand the amount of projects the Renewables Express program supports. Most of the projects are being sold under feed-in tariffs, according to O’Conner.

“Most of these projects are down to the project finance basis,” he said.

The project finance arrangement is used on larger-scale solar projects. With the Renewables Express program, the Ex-Im Bank had tried to streamline and reduce or eliminate advisory project costs, O’Conner said. Those lowered costs have allowed the projects to be lower-cost.

The company is aggressively pursuing marketing the product, one of a number in its stable of financing products to help expand the presence of U.S. renewable energy companies internationally. For instance, O’Conner speaks at many renewable energy conferences.

“We also conduct a proactive outreach to the companies in the industry. I’ve probably visited every manufacturer you could name,” he said.

Image courtesy of Solyndra.