Solar Companies Get $2 Billion in Federal Loan Guarantees
During his weekly address to the nation last Friday, President Obama announced the allocation of $2 billion in loan guarantees to two solar companies with big projects planned or underway in the United States. Abengoa Solar Inc., a Spanish firm, will build a large solar thermal electric power plant in Arizona, and Abound Solar will use funds to build manufacturing plants in Indiana and Colorado.
$1.45 billion goes (with conditions) to the Abengoa Solar project, dubbed “Solana.” The 280-megawatt CSP plant will be located near Gila Bend, Arizona, about 70 miles southwest of Phoenix. Solana will require a new 230-kilovolt (kV) transmission line to interconnect with the Arizona Public Service (APS) electric grid. According to President Obama, the project will create roughly 1,600 new jobs, and over 70 percent of the construction components and products involved will be manufacturing in the United States. Upon completion, Solana will be one of the largest solar power-generating plants in the world.
Abound Solar Manufacturing is getting $400 million in loan guarantees to open two new plants that will manufacture second-generation thin-film solar modules. The first, to be built in Tipton, Indiana, will involve the renovation and reuse of an abandoned Chrysler factory, while construction of the second plant is already underway in Longmont, Colorado. Combined, the two plants will create more than 2,000 jobs, said Obama, with better than 75 percent of those jobs being permanent positions.
All told, the three projects will create over 5,000 new jobs, according to a White House fact sheet. And the announcement of these latest federal loan guarantees brings the total to $14.8 billion that the Department of Energy has invested in $22.4 billion-worth of solar energy projects.
Photo Credit: ReCharge
Posted on July 6th in Solar Funding by Dan.
July 6th, 2010 at 8:44 pm
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September 22nd, 2010 at 9:16 pm
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