DOE Issues $1.8B Loan Guarantee To Arizona Utility For Renewable Energy

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO) on Tuesday has announced a conditional commitment for a loan guarantee of up to $1.81 billion to Arizona Public Service Company (APS) to help the electric utility invest in clean energy infrastructure. A key project that will be supported by the proposed loan will be the construction of the 150-MW/600-MWh Agave Battery Energy Storage (BESS) project sited next to a solar park. 

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The Loan Programs Office at the Department of Energy (DoE) has gone into overdrive in a bid to finalize as many loans as possible before Trump’s second term kicks off on January 20. So far, the office has announced ~$54 billion in loans or loan guarantees. Over $38 billion in loans have been issued since the November elections.

“They see the writing on the wall… They want to get out as much money as possible just to safeguard as much progress as they can,” Kennedy Nickerson, a former policy adviser to the loan programs office, said.

The Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office has also granted a $15B loan to Pacific Gas and Electric to upgrade its infrastructure, the biggest loan ever by the LPO. Other major commitments include a $7.54-billion loan to Samsung and Stellantis for a battery plant in Indiana, as well as a $6.57-billion loan to EV manufacturer Rivian.

However, this dash to distribute money to transition projects might end up being an exercise in futility, with Trump’s camp warning that the distributions will be scrutinized. To wit, Vivek Ramaswamy, co-chair of the Department of Government Efficiency, said that “DOGE will carefully scrutinize every one of these questionable 11th-hour transactions.”

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“It’s a pretty good expectation that the LPO will be on the target list. That gives the outgoing administration an incentive to try to lock in as many loan guarantees and funding actions as they can,”Kevin Book, co-founder of research group ClearView Energy Partners, told the Financial Times.

By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com

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