2 solar firms OK’d for $1b in US loans
Energy Dept. program has drawn criticism
WASHINGTON - The Energy Department approved two loan guarantees worth more than $1 billion for solar energy projects in Nevada and Arizona yesterday, two days before the expiration of a program that has become a rallying cry for Republican critics of the Obama administration’s green energy program.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the department has completed a $737 million loan guarantee to Tonopah Solar Energy for a 110 megawatt solar tower on federal land near Tonopah, Nev., and a $337 million guarantee for Mesquite Solar 1 to develop a 150 megawatt solar plant near Phoenix.
The loans were approved under the same program that paid for a $528 million loan to Solyndra Inc., a California maker of solar panels that went bankrupt after receiving the money. Solyndra is under investigation by the FBI and is the focal point of House hearings on the program.
SolarReserve LLC, of Santa Monica, Calif., the parent of Tonopah, is privately held. The Energy Department said its rules prevented it from discussing the company’s financial information. Sempra Energy of San Diego, which owns Mesquite, is public.
Energy Department spokesman Damien LaVera said the two projects had extensive reviews that included scrutiny of the parent companies’ finances.
Chu said the Nevada project would produce enough electricity to power more than 43,000 homes, while the Arizona project would power nearly 31,000 homes. The two projects will create about 900 construction jobs, Chu said.
“If we want to be a player in the global clean energy race, we must continue to invest in innovative technologies that enable commercial-scale deployment of clean, renewable power like solar,’’ Chu said in a statement.
Senate majority leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, is a strong supporter of the Nevada project, which he says will help his state’s economy recover. Former governor Jim Gibbons, a Republican, also supported the project.
The loan approvals came just two days before a renewable energy loan program approved under the 2009 economic stimulus law is set to expire. At least seven projects worth more than $5 billion are pending.
A government watchdog group said the Solyndra bankruptcy shows the need for greater oversight of all the department’s loan guarantee programs.
“It is time for a full audit of their activities, their management and their results,’’ said Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste.
Too often, the government either backs risky or failing ventures, resulting in a loss of taxpayer money, or subsidizes companies and industries that are mature and profitable and don’t need the money, such as the oil and gas industry, Schatz said.
A spokesman for Sempra Generation, which is developing the Arizona project, said its loan guarantee was less risky than the Solyndra loan. The project has a 20-year agreement with Pacific Gas & Electric Co. to buy power from the solar plant, he said.
