On August 24, 2015, President Obama announced two actions being undertaken by the Department of Energy Loan Program Office to support distributed energy projects.  These actions do not provide new federal funding authority for projects, but rather, repurposes existing funding authority and provides eligibility clarification to existing solicitations to better support distributed energy projects.

• DOE is supplementing the Advanced Fossil Energy Projects and the Renewable Energy & Efficient Energy Projects solicitations to invite applications for distributed energy projects. The supplements to both solicitations includes guidance on what eligible distributed energy projects, as well as how a project transaction could be structured in order to benefit from the loan guarantee.  Click HERE to view the supplements to the existing Advanced Fossil Energy Projects and the Renewable Energy & Efficient Energy Projects solicitations.  See each solicitation for final application deadline.
• Using existing authority provided by Congress for fossil energy and renewable energy projects, DOE is requesting a reprogramming of $1 billion in loan guarantee authority specifically for distributed energy projects utilizing innovative technology.  This authority will be split equally between the Advanced Fossil Energy Projects and the Renewable Energy & Efficient Energy Projects solicitations. The loan guarantee authority will be available following a 45-day Congressional notification period.  DOE did not indicate if it will issue a solicitation for Distributed Energy Projects when the notification period ends.  We will provide an update when further information is made available.