DOE makes up to $4 billion in loan guarantees available for renewable energy

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO) recently issued a Renewable Energy and Efficient Energy Projects Loan Guarantee Solicitation, which would make as much as $4 billion in loan guarantees available to support innovative, renewable energy and energy efficiency projects in the United States that reduce, avoid or sequester greenhouse gases. The solicitation is intended to support renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies that are catalytic, replicable and market ready.

Loan guarantees can be an important tool to commercialize innovative renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies because these projects may be unable to obtain full commercial financing due to the perceived risks associated with technology that has never been deployed at commercial scale.

The solicitation seeks applications for projects that cover a range of technologies, including waste-to-energy technologies, such as those using “methane from landfills or ranches via biodigesters."

Applications will undergo a two-part review. The Part I submission provides DOE with a description of the project; technical information; background information on management, financing, construction, and operating strategies; and progress to date of critical path schedules. Part I will determine the initial eligibility of a project and whether it is ready to proceed. Applications that clear Part I then proceed to Part II, which includes the full application process.

The Part II submission consists of the items summarized in Attachment A of the solicitation as well as other information that may be requested to facilitate DOE’s continued due diligence review.

In order to encourage submissions of complete applications as early as possible, Part II submissions will be systematically reviewed on a continuous basis as soon as they are received. However, final selection of qualified applicants will not occur until after all Part II submissions are competitively evaluated against all others submitted during the corresponding round of review. The Part I and Part II application due dates are as follows:

Additional rounds may be announced in a supplement to this solicitation. Comments or questions on the loan guarantee solicitation may be submitted to LPO.REEESolicitation.Questions@hq.doe.gov.

More information about the draft Renewable Energy and Efficient Energy solicitation is available on the Loan Programs Office website.