DoE Closes $4.7 Billion in Loan Guarantees

The Department of Energy (DoE), on Friday, said that it closed loan guarantees and related deals worth $4.7 billion for solar projects, including power plants backed by First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR).  The DoE closed loan guarantees for three large-solar power plants and one large rooftop solar project hours before the loan-guarantee program was set to expire.

The DoE said that it has now issued loans and loan guarantees for $40 billion in projects related to clean-energy. A number of loan guarantees are still in the pipeline and will now compete for a much smaller pool of funding.

With the closing of the loan guarantees on Friday, the DoE will be able to access funds from 2009 economic stimulus package. The government is facing increasing pressure in selecting the remaining guarantees after Solyndra LLC, a solar start-up that obtained $535 million loan guarantee, filed for bankruptcy.

Among the projects that received loan guarantees on Friday included two solar-power plants backed by First Solar. Following the receipt of the loan guarantee, the company announced that it will sell the two power plants to new owners. The company will, build and manage the plants. The company’s 230-megawatt Antelope Valley solar plant has been acquired by Exelon Corporation (NYSE: EXC), while its 550-megawatt Desert Sunlight project will be sold to NextEra Energy Inc. (NYSE: NEE).

The DoE also closed a loan guarantee under which it will partly fund a large commercial rooftop solar-panel project. The project is being developed by NRG Energy Inc. (NYSE: NRG) and ProLogis Inc. and will be the largest rooftop solar deployment in U.S. history. The loans and loan guarantee for the project will cover almost half of a $2.6 billion plan to install solar panels on rooftops of ProLogis warehouses in 28 states.

The DoE also guaranteed a $1.2 billion loan for SunPower Corp.’s (NASDAQ: SPWRA) solar power plant located in San Luis Obispo County, California.

Post Written By: Ed Liston Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.