DOE Makes $30B Available to Jumpstart Renewable Energy,' Smart Grid' Projects

July 30, 2009
DOE Makes $30B Available to Jumpstart Renewable Energy,' Smart Grid' Projects
By KATHERINE LING of Greenwire

The Energy Department is making up to $30 billion in loan guarantee authority available for renewable energy and electric grid modernization projects.

DOE announced yesterday it was ready to accept applications for about $8.5 billion in loan guarantee authority for advanced renewable energy projects made available in the department's 2009 spending bill and $3.25 billion provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to cover the subsidy costs that will unleash the billions of dollars in loan guarantee authority for renewable energy, transmission projects and biofuels.

Of the $3.25 billion in subsidy costs from the stimulus act, $500 million is specifically for biofuel projects, and $750 million is for large transmission projects that begin construction before Sept. 30, 2011.

Applicants have 45 days to apply for the new guarantee authority, DOE said.

The government-backed authority should help boost lending capital for renewable and other clean-energy technology projects, which has dried up with the financial recession. The stimulus act also included an extension of tax credits for renewable energy and added flexibility where companies can apply for grants instead of using tax credits that the Treasury Department also made available this month (E&ENews PM, July 9).

"This administration has set a goal of doubling renewable electricity generation over the next three years," Energy Secretary Steven Chu said...

http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/07/30/30greenwire-doe-makes-30b-available-to-jumpstart-renewable-16564.html&ct=ga&cd=F6J_cFSzF3g&usg=AFQjCNHRzmwUQwl1-adAYf2n6K81rBSDfw

amount of money for environmental restoration projects all over the country. Which means good-paying jobs over the next couple of years to do all that work. It will get money MOVING again, which is what we need.

One of the big projects to benefit, IIRC, is restoration of wetlands in San Francisco Bay. But little stuff down here in my local area, like Ventura County's wetlands projects, will also now be able to proceed.

We need the work, and we need to improve our manufacturing base in long term industries.

The Government should fund projects to get industry up on the learning curve and generate a pool of trained workers to build renewable energy systems. When private interests see renewables as an established, working, economical way to produce energy, sales of new systems will increase at a greater and greater pace.

The United States Government needs to plant the seed, and the we all can watch it grow.