2 weeks Ago By Rebecca Bellan
The Department of Energy (DOE) appears to be on a loan-approval spree in the lead-up to President-Elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, and the winners are all companies manufacturing clean energy solutions on U.S. soil.
Trump has promised to cancel any unspent federal dollars under President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, a bipartisan climate law that allocated billions to building a domestic supply chain for clean energy. The IRA spurred a flurry of private investment as well. In particular, automakers and battery manufacturers have collectively invested or promised to invest around $112 billion in building domestic cell and module manufacturing plants for electric vehicles.
Those factories have largely benefited Republican-led communities. The fresh loans come from two DOE loan programs — the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) loan program and the Title 17 Clean Energy Financing Program — that the IRA revived and expanded, respectively. The ATVM program in particular, which went dormant under Trump’s first administration, once provided a much-needed $465 million loan to Tesla in 2009, helping to save the EV maker from one of several near-death experiences.
It dwindled under Trump’s administration. A joint venture between General Motors and LG Energy Solution was the first to receive a $2.5 billion loan under the ATVM program in 2022 under Biden’s administration.
A condition of these loans is that the borrowers “meaningfully engage with community and labor stakeholders to create good-paying jobs and improve the well-being of the local community and workers.” Over the past week, the DOE approved or conditionally approved four loans totaling roughly $14.7 billion.
We’re keeping track of where the Biden administration’s DOE loan money is going. Here are some of the biggest recent recipients. Eos Energy Enterprises On December 3, the DOE closed a $303.
5 million loan guarantee ($277.5 million of principal and $26 million of capitalized interest) to Eos Energy Enterprises to finance the construction of two production lines that promise to produce enough stationary batteries per year to power the electricity needs of 130,000 homes. The project is expected to create up to 1,000 jobs.
Stellantis and Samsung (StarPlus Energy) On December 2, the DOE approved a conditional commitment for a loan of up to $7.54 billion ($6.85 billion in principal, $688 in interest) to StarPlus Energy , the joint venture formed by automaker Stellantis and South Korean battery manufacturer Samsung SDI.
If finalized, the loan will finance the two lithium-ion battery cell and module factories that are being built in Kokomo, Indiana. The project is expected to create about 3,200 construction jobs and 2,800 operations jobs at the plants. At peak production, the factories are expected to produce 67 GWh of battery capacity, which is enough to power 670,000 vehicles annually.
Sunwealth Clean energy investment firm Sunwealth on November 25 scored a loan guarantee of up to $289.7 million for its Project Polo. If finalized, the loan will finance the deployment of up to 1,000 solar photovoltaic and battery energy storage systems to commercial and industrial facilities across up to 27 states.
Project Polo is expected to create 3,700 jobs, including 1,900 solar and storage installation jobs and 1,700 operations and maintenance jobs. Rivian Rivian on November 25 secured a conditional commitment for a $6.6 billion loan to help it restart construction on its massive EV factory in Georgia.
Rivian expects to begin operations at the factory in 2028, and it will employ 7,500 people by 2030..
