New Fed Support for Wind, Solar PV Projects

The Department of Energy (DOE) on Monday finalized a $102 million loan guarantee to a 50.6-MW power plant and an 8-mile transmission line, right on the heels of Department of the Interior (DOI) approval for a massive 550-MW solar photovoltaic (PV) facility in California last week.

A $102M Loan Guarantee for Maine Wind Project
The DOE finalized a $102 million loan guarantee to Record Hill Wind LLC. Project financing is coupled with an investment by the Yale University Endowment, and it will support the wind plant, the transmission line, and associated interconnection near Roxbury, Maine, in Oxford County.

The project developed and managed by Wagner Wind Energy I, LLC of New Hampshire and Independence Wind, LLC of Maine will consist of 22 turbines. The turbines will be installed with innovative Turbine Load Control (TLC) technology, a system of sensors and processing software that allows the turbines to continue to generate electricity under turbulent conditions, rather than be shut down completely. TLC is also expected to reduce wear and tear on the turbines, reduce operation and management costs, and extend the life of the turbine components, the DOE said.

DOI Greenlights 550-MW PV Project
Last week, the DOI approved the 550-MW Desert Sunlight Solar Farm, a thin-film PV project that will be built on 4,100 acres in the California desert east of Palm Springs. The facility, operated by a First Solar subsidiary, is the largest PV facility approved to date in the U.S. The DOE had granted the project a conditional commitment for a $1.88 billion loan guarantee in June.

Desert Sunlight will include an on-site substation and a 230-kV generation tie line to connect the project to the Red Bluff substation, which will convert the power from 230 kV to 500 kV for transmission on Southern California Edison’s regional grid.

Sources: POWERnews, DOE, DOI