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Barely a week into her new job as secretary of the US Department
of Energy (DOE), former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm
announced 3 March that she has kicked her agency's $40-billion loan
authority back into full gear and picked a high-profile clean
energy trailbreaker to lead the effort.
Jigar Shah, who founded SunEdison in the early 2000s and
invented the purchase power agreement model that is now the
backbone of most US solar energy projects, was appointed to run the
DOE flagship loan program. He has been tasked with funneling
billions this year alone into the Biden administration's ambitious
energy transition plans.
"He's has written the playbook on how to drive the market toward
clean energy solutions," Granholm told the CERAWeek by IHS energy
conference. "He's going to help us put together an indominable
portfolio of investments for American taxpayers so we're ready to
invest in advanced vehicles, and carbon capture, and advance
reactors and so much more. The possibilities are endless."
Shah also led the Carbon War Room, the initiative founded by
Richard Branson and Virgin United to spur new low-carbon solutions
businesses, and most recently served as co-founder and president at
Generate Capital, where he focused on helping clean energy access
financing.
The DOE loan office chief said in a tweet Wednesday that he will
help the agency be a "safe and inviting place for innovation to be
deployed at scale."
$500 million in returns for taxpayers
The DOE loan office has been credited for backing the first five
US utility-scale solar projects, including the 392-megawatt Ivanpah
facility in California, and for funding emerging technology
companies like Tesla. But is also came under fire for offering $535
million in loan guarantees in 2009 to solar panel manufacturer
Solyndra that went bankrupt two years later, leading to
investigations and hearings in the US Congress.
Those losses have long since been recouped. Granholm said that
taxpayers have so far earned $500 million on the $30 billion in
loan guarantees the DOE loan office has given out since it began
operating in 2006.
"Our loan authority has as helped some of America's bravest
entrepreneurs get their best ideas off the ground and to flourish
into what they are today," Granholm said. "I'm ready to rev those
engines back up."
The program laid mostly dormant under President Trump, offering
funding for just a few nuclear energy projects over the past four
years. Trump at one point sought to close down the office.
Geothermal energy projects coming up
In addition to loan guarantees, the Energy Department last month
also issued a call for $100 million in research and development
grants for start-up projects funded by the agency's popular
Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy program. On its list of
projects: sea-weed farming drones that make biofuel.
The agency also recently awarded $46 million to jumpstart
geothermal energy projects in the United States.
"It's an old technology, and it's a new technology and we're
going to pursue it," Granholm said. "These are cutting-edge project
that will have the potential to power millions of American
homes."
The next step, Shah wrote on Twitter, will be to get projects
off the ground.
"We will need your help to make sure that we people apply for
these funds and we all work collaboratively to help communities and
workers benefit from this transition," he wrote.
Granholm emphasized that the Biden administration only has four
years guaranteed to work with, and that it's in a race to get as
many policies and programs implemented as possible to meet the
president's goals. Biden has called for a fully decarbonized power
grid by 2035 and a net-zero emissions economy by 2050, which aligns
with the goals set by the 2015 Paris climate treaty.
"Four years … that's less than 1,000 days if you exclude
weekends," Granholm said, adding, "But we're going to work
24-7."
Posted 03 March 2021 by Karin Rives, Senior Journalist, IHS Markit