UPDATE: US Closes Solar Loan Guarantees Ahead of Deadline
September 30 2011 - 5:39PM
Dow Jones News
The U.S. Department of Energy said Friday it closed loan
guarantees for three large solar power plants and a massive rooftop
solar project just hours before much of the funding for its loan
guarantee program was set to expire.
The deals totaled about $4.7 billion and concluded a flurry of
announcements by the Department, which said it has now issued loans
and loan guarantees for $40 billion in clean energy projects.
Several loan guarantees still in the pipeline, though, were not
finalized in time and will now be fighting for a much smaller pot
of funding.
The loan guarantees had to be finalized by Friday in order to
access money from the 2009 economic-stimulus package. The Obama
administration has been under intense pressure to choose wisely in
issuing the remaining guarantees following the bankruptcy filing
earlier this month of solar startup Solyndra Inc., which obtained a
$535 million loan guarantee.
Two solar power plants backed by First Solar, Inc. (FSLR)
received guarantees Friday. The company, which specializes in
making solar panels, quickly announced it was selling the two
facilities to new owners. First Solar will supply, build and manage
the plants.
The Department also said it closed a loan guarantee to back part
of the financing for a large, commercial rooftop solar-panel
project that Energy Secretary Steven Chu said would be the largest
rooftop solar deployment in U.S. history. The project is being
developed by NRG Energy Inc. (NRG) and ProLogis Inc. (PLD), and
will receive $1.4 billion in loans from Bank of America Corp.'s
(BAC) Merrill Lynch unit, the largest financing package assembled
for a U.S. rooftop solar-power project, the companies said.
Finally, the department said it had finalized a $1.2 billion
loan guarantee for a SunPower Corp. (SPWRA, SPWRB) solar power
plant in San Luis Obispo County, Calif.
Exelon Corp. (EXC) said it bought First Solar's 230-megawatt
Antelope Valley solar plant, for which the U.S. is guaranteeing
$646 million in loans. Construction has already begun at the site
in northern Los Angeles County.
First Solar said it was also selling its 550-megawatt Desert
Sunlight project to NextEra Energy, Inc. (NEE). The U.S. is
guaranteeing part of $1.46 billion in loans for the power plant,
which is located in Riverside County, Calif.
The loans and loan guarantee for NRG and Prologis will cover
roughly half of a four-year, $2.6 billion plan to install solar
panels on rooftops of ProLogis warehouses in 28 states. Altogether,
the systems are expected to generate about 752 megawatts, enough to
serve about 88,000 homes, according to the Energy Department. NRG
has started construction on the first installation, a 15-megawatt
rooftop solar generator in southern California that will provide
electricity to Edison International's (EIX) electric utility.
Last week, the administration said two loan guarantees it had
earlier offered separately to First Solar and SolarCity Corp. would
not be done before the deadline. Together they would have covered
more than $2.2 billion in loans to finance solar-power generating
facilities.
Under scrutiny for Solyndra, which was the Department of
Energy's first loan guarantee, Chu said the projects approved
Friday would create jobs and provide models for future expansion of
renewable electricity generation. "Innovation and investments in
America's clean energy future are critical to our continued
competiveness in the global market," he said in a statement.
-By Ryan Tracy, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9245;
ryan.tracy@dowjones.com
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