DOE’s Loan Programs Office Offers Game-Changing Possibilities

As the presidential inauguration loomed on the horizon in January this year, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Loan Programs Office (LPO) published a “year-in-review” article, highlighting accomplishments from 2024 and looking ahead to the future. It noted that the previous four years had been the most productive in the LPO’s history.

“Under the Biden-Harris Administration, the Office has announced 53 deals totaling approximately $107.57 billion in committed project investment––approximately $46.95 billion for 28 active conditional commitments and approximately $60.62 billion for 25 closed loans and loan guarantees,” it said.

Much of the funding for these investments came through the passing of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The LPO reported that U.S. clean energy investment more than doubled from $111 billion in 2020 to $236 billion in 2023, creating more than 400,000 clean energy jobs. The private sector notably led the way, enabled by U.S. government policy and partnerships.

“There were 55 deals that we got across the finish line,” Jigar Shah, director of the LPO from March 2021 to January 2025, said as a guest on The POWER Podcast, while noting there were possibly 200 more projects that were nearly supported. “They needed to do more work on their end to improve their business,” he explained. That might have meant they needed to de-risk their feedstock agreement or their off-take agreement, for example, or get better quality contractors to do the construction of their project.

“It was a lot of education work,” Shah said, “but I’m really proud of that work, because I think a lot of those companies, regardless of whether they used our office or not, were better for the interactions that they had with us.”

A Framework for Success

When asked about doling out funds, Shah viewed the term somewhat negatively. “As somebody who’s been an investor in my career, you don’t dole out money, because that’s how you lose money,” he explained. “What you do is you create a framework. And you tell people, ‘Hey, if you meet this framework, then we’ve got a loan for you, and if you don’t meet this framework, then we don’t have a loan for you.” Shah noted that the vast majority of the 400 to 500 companies that the LPO worked closely with during his tenure didn’t quite meet the framework.

Still, most of those that did have progressed smoothly. “Everything that started construction is still under construction, and so, they’re all going to be completed,” said Shah. “I think all in all, the thesis worked. Certainly, there are many people who had a hard time raising equity or had a hard time getting to the finish line and final investment decision, but for those folks who got to final investment decision and started construction, I think they’re doing very well.”

Notable Projects

When asked which projects he was most excited about, Shah said, “All of them are equally exciting to me. I mean, that’s the beauty of the work I do.” He did, however, go on to mention several that stood out to him. Specifically, he pointed to the Wabash, Montana Renewables, EVgo, and Holtec Palisades projects, which were all supported under the LPO’s Title 17 Clean Energy Financing Program, as particularly noteworthy.

The Wabash project will produce low-carbon ammonia to be used for fertilizer, while repurposing fossil fuel infrastructure and creating permanent jobs in a former coal community. The loan guarantee was for $1.559 billion, and the project location is West Terre Haute, Indiana. “The ammonia that they’re offsetting is ammonia coming from Ukraine using Russian gas, shipped into Tampa, and so, being able to make more ammonia here locally I think is amazing,” Shah said.

Meanwhile, Montana Renewables is expanding its renewable fuels facility in Great Falls, Montana. It will utilize vegetable oils, fats, and greases to produce sustainable aviation fuel, renewable diesel, and renewable naphtha. The loan guarantee for that project totals $1.67 billion. “That is going really well with Calumet,” Shah noted.

EVgo’s $1.25 billion loan guarantee will help it deploy approximately 7,500 electric vehicle (EV) charging stalls at roughly 1,100 charging stations across the U.S. Concerning EVgo, Shah said, “They’re on track to becoming a profitable company and providing services to EV owners around the country. And so, it’s great to see us be able to really help them with their customer service challenges and some of the other challenges that were holding them back, and that they made pretty strong commitments to improve along with the loan underwriting.”

Last, but perhaps most important of the projects Shah mentioned from a power industry perspective, was the Holtec Palisades project. Valued at $1.52 billion, the loan guarantee will allow upgrading and repowering of the Palisades nuclear plant in Covert, Michigan, a first in U.S. history, which has spurred others to bring retired nuclear plants back online. “[It’s] super exciting to see our first nuclear plant being restarted, and as a result, the Constellation folks have decided to restart a nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania, and NextEra has decided to restart a nuclear reactor in Iowa. So, it’s great to have that catalytic impact,” said Shah.

To hear the full interview with Shah, which contains more about Shah’s career, the LPO, nuclear power economics and timelines, market-driven solutions to climate change, U.S. energy abundance, the Jigar Shah Rule and policy structuring, ramping down incentives for solar and wind, prospects for carbon capture and fusion, and more, listen to The POWER Podcast. Click on the SoundCloud player below to listen in your browser now or use the following links to reach the show page on your favorite podcast platform:

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—Aaron Larson is POWER’s executive editor (@AaronL_Power, @POWERmagazine).