DOE Loan Guarantees and Recent Alternative Energy Awards

See below for more on the following.

1) DOE to Guarantee $10 Billion in Loans for Efficiency, Renewables
2) Denali Commission an Alaska Energy Authority Announce Project Funding ($5 Million for Alaska Alternative Energy Projects)
3) USDA Awards $2.55 Million for Efficiency, Renewable Energy Projects and $19.9 under High Energy Cost Grant program

For information on the Program and the DOE’s “Guide to Tribal Energy Development", see www.eere.energy.gov/tribalenergy

1) DOE to Guarantee $10 Billion in Loans for Efficiency, Renewables

DOE is offering $10 billion in loan guarantees for projects involving energy efficiency, renewable energy, and advanced transmission and distribution. The agency is seeking projects relating to biomass, geothermal, solar, and wind energy, as well as projects involving hydropower, alternative fuel vehicles, and energy efficiency. In addition to general energy efficiency projects, the solicitation specifically requests projects relating to energy efficient building technologies and efficient electricity transmission, distribution, and storage. DOE intends to issue loan guarantees for stand-alone projects, as well as projects relating to manufacturing technologies and the large-scale integration of renewable energy, energy efficiency, and energy storage technologies into the electrical grid. The agency issued a solicitation on Monday for the loan guarantees, along with two solicitations for nuclear power that increase the total loan guarantee package to $30.5 billion.

DOE's Loan Guarantee Program was established by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and is intended only for projects that avoid, reduce, or sequester greenhouse gas emissions and employ "new or significantly improved technologies as compared to commercial technologies in service in the United States." A technology is considered to be commercialized if it has been installed in three or more commercial projects in the United States and has been in service for at least 5 years. The solicitation includes an illustrative list of technologies, but does not restrict applications to technologies on that list. The guarantees can be issued for loans of up to 80% of a project's total cost. Applications are due on December 31. See the DOE press release , the Loan Guarantee Program Web site, and the full solicitation (PDF 542 KB ).

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2) Denali Commission an Alaska Energy Authority Announce Project Funding ($5 Million for Alaska Alternative Energy Projects)
$5 Million Awarded for Alternative Energy The Denali Commission and the Alaska Energy Authority announce the awards for alternative-renewable projects and energy cost reduction projects. More details are available here.

See the complete press release, project list with funding amounts and map of projects for this award here.

3) USDA Awards $2.55 Million for Efficiency, Renewable Energy Projects and $19.9 under High Energy Cost Grant program

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced in mid-June that 39 farms and rural businesses in eight states have been selected to receive $2.55 million in loans and grants for renewable energy systems and energy efficiency improvements. Much of the funding is going toward more energy efficient grain dryers, which can cut energy use by up to 67%. The projects also include an upgrade to efficient refrigerators and freezers in Iowa, a geothermal heat pump installation in Iowa, and a 10-kilowatt solar power installation in New York. The funds are being provided under USDA's Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency program, which was established by the 2002 Farm Bill. The funding recipients are located in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, and their selection was announced in two separate press releases. See the June 11 press release (PDF 17 KB) and recipient list (PDF 15 KB ) and the June 18 press release (PDF 40 KB ) on the USDA Rural Development Web site.

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The USDA also awarded $19.9 million in grants in late May under its High Energy Cost Grant program. While some of that funding went toward power line projects, about $11 million in grants went toward energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. The grants will support energy efficiency retrofits for the homes of low-income families in Alabama and Kentucky, two wind turbine projects and a 1.5-megawatt hydropower facility in Alaska, a landfill gas-to-electricity project in New York, and solar power systems for remote tribal homes in the Navajo Nation, which spans Arizona and New Mexico. In addition, a grant will support effort by Kauai Habitat for Humanity to build sustainable homes in Hawaii that incorporate solar energy, while a separate grant will help provide technical assistance for installing solar energy systems in Hawaii. See the press release (PDF 17 KB ) and recipient list (PDF 16 KB ) on the USDA Rural Development Web site.