Fact Sheet: The Department Of Energy's Loan Programs
The U.S. Department of Energy's Loan Guarantee Program paves the way for federal support of clean energy projects that use innovative technologies, and spurs further investment in these advanced technologies. A principal purpose of the Loan Guarantee Program is to encourage early commercial use in the United States of new or significantly improved technologies in energy projects. DOE believes that accelerated commercial use of new or improved technologies will help to create jobs and sustain economic growth, yield environmental benefits, and produce a more stable and secure energy supply.
DOE's Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program provides loans to automobile and automobile part manufacturers for the cost of re-equipping, expanding, or establishing manufacturing facilities in the United States to produce advanced technology vehicles or qualified components, and for associated engineering integration costs.
To date, DOE has conditionally offered or closed 12 loans or loan guarantees. According to estimates from the companies, these projects will collectively create or save about 50,000 jobs. They will also lead to the capacity to produce more than 3 GW of clean power each year and will avoid more than 30 million tons of CO2 per year. The vehicle projects will save 270 million gallons of gasoline each year.
The following is a list of the 12 projects announced thus far:
- Solyndra, Inc. was awarded a $535M loan guarantee to manufacture innovative cylindrical solar photovoltaic panels that provide clean, renewable energy. [Solyndra press release]
- Nordic Windpower USA has been offered a conditional commitment for $16M to support the expansion of its assembly plant in Pocatello, Idaho to produce its one megawatt wind turbine. [Nordic Windpower press release]
- Beacon Power, an energy storage company, has been offered a conditional commitment of $43M to support the construction of its 20 megawatt flywheel energy storage plant in Stephentown, New York that will help ensure the reliable delivery of renewable energy to the electricity grid. [Beacon Power press release]
- Red River Environmental Products, LLC has been offered a conditional commitment for $245M to build an activated carbon (AC) manufacturing facility near Coushatta, Red River Parish, Louisiana. [Red River press release]
- The Department of Energy offered conditional commitments for a total of $8.33B in loan guarantees for the construction and operation of two new nuclear reactors at the Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant in Burke, Georgia. [Vogtle Electric press release]
- BrightSource Energy, Inc. has been offered conditional commitments for more than $1.37B in loan guarantees under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to support the construction and start-up of three utility-scale concentrated solar power plants.[BrightSource Energy press release]
- First Wind - Kahuku Wind Power, LLC has received a conditional commitment for $117M to install twelve 2.5 MW wind turbine generators along with a battery energy storage system for electricity load stability.
- Sage Electrochromics has received a conditional commitment for $72M to support the financing of the construction and operation of a 250,000 square foot, high volume manufacturing facility to produce SageGlass, an energy-saving switchable window technology for commercial and residential use. F
- ord Motor Company has closed on a $5.9B loan to Ford Motor Company to transform factories across Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, and Ohio to produce more fuel efficient models. [Ford Motor Company press release]
- Nissan has closed on a $1.4B loan to produce electric cars and battery packs at its manufacturing complex in Smyrna, Tennessee. The loan will aid in the construction of a new battery plant and modifications to the existing assembly facility. [Nissan press release]
- Tesla Motors has been offered a $465M loan to finance a manufacturing facility for the Tesla Model S sedan and to support a facility to manufacture battery packs and electric drive trains. [Tesla Motors press release]
- Fisker Automotive has been offered a $528.7M conditional loan for the development of two lines of plug-in hybrids that will save hundreds of millions of gallons of gasoline and offset millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions by 2016. [Fisker Automotive press release]
Jobs created or saved (estimates provided by project sponsors):
| Project Name | Construction/production jobs created or saved |
| Ford | 35,000 |
| Nissan | 1,300 |
| Tesla | 1,000 |
| Fisker | 5,000 |
| Vogtle | 3,000 |
| Sage | 210 |
| Bright Source | 1,000 |
| Red River | 500 |
| Solyndra | 3,000 |
| Nordic | 75 |
| First Wind | 200 |
| Total | 50,285 |
Generation Capacity of Power Plants or of Products Manufactured
| Project Name | Generation capacity in MW |
| Vogtle | 2,200 |
| Bright Source | 400 |
| Solyndra | 500 |
| First Wind | 30 |
| Total | 3,130 |
Avoided Emissions by Project
| Net Avoided Emissions (tons/year) | |||||||
| Project Name | CO2 | CH4 | N2O | NOx | SOx | ||
| Solyndra | 8,166,167 | N/A | N/A | 12,667 | 33,333 | ||
| Nordic | 4,162,543 | 28,458 | 62.4 | 10,025 | 17,208 | ||
| Beacon | 7,980 | N/A | N/A | 14 | 56 | ||
| BrightSource | 181,288 | 416 | 1.0 | 160 | 168 | ||
| Vogtle | 18,000,000 | N/A | N/A | 20,000 | 88,000 | ||
| Red River | 98,970 | 158 | 1.2 | 135 | 205 | ||
| Total | 30,616,948 | 29,032 | 65 | 43,001 | 138,970 | ||
ATVM Fuel Savings
The vehicles supported by the first four ATVM loans will reduce fuel consumption by 270 million gallons a year between 2012 and 2014. The calculation assumes average production volumes between 2012 and 2014, and that each vehicle travels 12,000 miles a year. The fuel savings are based on comparisons to a comparable 2005 vehicle. As the projects ramp up beyond 2014, the fuel savings will increase.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Energy