A US cleantech loan program sprints while path is clear

At the risk of going dormant under incoming US president Donald J. Trump, the Loan Programs Office (LPO) of the US Department of Energy (DOE) is in a final sprint to process hundreds of applications for government-backed loans that would finance large cleantech manufacturing projects, including plants making battery materials and biobased chemicals. The LPO provides loans to projects that have the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions but use new technologies that are considered too risky for private lenders. The office started issuing loans during Barack Obama’s first administration. The program drew attention for a 2010 loan that helped fuel the growth of the electric carmaker Tesla and attracted scrutiny a year later when the solar firm Solyndra went bankrupt and defaulted on an LPO loan. After Solyndra’s bankruptcy, the number of loans issued by the LPO dropped significantly. The slow pace continued during Trump’s first term, when the