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In a final heave-ho, the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office pushed out loan guarantees for three utility-scale solar generation and battery energy storage projects in Puerto Rico. The $1.2 billion low-cost debt financing package was LPO’s last commitment before the Biden administration handed over the keys.
LPO, which got a big boost under the Inflation Reduction Act, is a key target of President Donald Trump, who has promised to claw back unspent funds from the climate legislation (see, “Jigar Shah’s $30 billion final clean tech push”).
The loan guarantees include $584.5 million to subsidiaries of Convergent Energy and Power to finance over 200,000 megawatts of solar and battery storage in Coamo, Cuaguas, Penuelas and Ponce. The projects are expected to enhance Puerto Rico’s grid reliability, adding generation and energy storage capacity near load centers.
Convergent says the projects will create roughly 540 construction jobs and 20 green jobs when the systems come online.
Clean power producers
The other two loan guarantees are conditional commitments, including $133.6 million to Yabucoa Solar, a subsidiary of renewable energy provider Infinigen, for nearly 100 megawatts of solar and battery storage on the island’s eastern coast. Yabucoa Solar will provide about 70,000 megawatt-hours of clean energy yearly.
The other is a guarantee of up to $489.4 million to a subsidiary of San Francisco-based clean energy developer Pattern Energy Group for three standalone battery storage projects in Arecibo and Santa Isabel. The projects are projected to deliver roughly 165,000 megawatt-hours of clean energy annually in Puerto Rico.
LPO’s Jigar Shah says LPO invested close to $61 billion for 25 loans and guarantees under the Biden administration. Another $147 billion in conditional commitments for 28 projects have not yet been finalized.
