On the last working day before Trump’s inauguration, the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO) announced two conditional commitments and one loan closing in Puerto Rico, totalling over US$1.2 billion.
All three projects are contracted with the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), which is working to gradually replace Puerto Rico’s fossil fuel generation with renewable energy and battery energy storage systems (BESS) through 2032 following a devastating hurricane in 2017.
The announced loan closing is for developer-operator Convergent Energy – Energy-Storage.news covered the LPO’s announcement of a conditional commitment to Convergent for US$584.5 million in late December.
The now guaranteed loan of US$584.5 million will be used to finance a 100MW photovoltaic (PV) system with a 55MW/55MWh BESS in the municipality of Coamo, Puerto Rico. It will also help fund three other standalone BESS projects, a 25MW/100MWh system in Caguas, a 100MW/400MWh system in Peñuelas, and a 100MW/400MWh system in Ponce.
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The DOE’s LPO also announced a conditional commitment of US$489.4 million to Pattern, a subsidiary of Pattern Energy Group, for three standalone BESS projects. The loan would be used for the 50MW/200MWh BESS in Arecibo, a 50MW/200MWh project in Santa Isabel, and an 80MW/320MWh BESS and integrated 70MWac solar PV system in Arecibo.
Additionally, the LPO’s announcement included a conditional commitment of US$133.6 million to Infinigen, a subsidiary of AL-Infinigen Operating, for a 32.1MWac solar PV project integrated with a 14.45/4.76MWh BESS and a co-located standalone 50MW/200MWh BESS expansion in the municipality of Yabucoa.
Infinigen partnered with parent company FlexGen and IPP Arclight to deploy a co-located 15MW BESS project in Puerto Rico in April 2024.
According to the PR100 study launched in February 2022 with funding from FEMA, Puerto Rico can transition to 100% renewable energy by 2050. However, reaching this goal means the territory must significantly increase its new power generation infrastructure.
If finalised, collectively, these projects would more than double the LPO’s support for utility-scale solar generation and battery storage in Puerto Rico.
The loans would also support the Biden-Harris administration’s Justice40 initiative, setting a goal that 40% of the overall benefits of certain federal investments in clean energy and other areas flow to disadvantaged communities marginalised by underinvestment and pollution.
Part of the Justice40 initiative and LPO’s first loan to a power producer in Puerto Rico, Project Maharu, which combines 200MW of solar PV and 285MW/1,140MWh of energy storage, closed on US$861.3 million from the DOE in October 2024.
PREPA is seeking to install 1,500MW of battery storage and requires a minimum storage capacity to be co-located with each utility-scale solar project. Including Project Marahu, the LPO’s closed and conditionally committed financing supports over 100% of the capacity PREPA aimed to procure under its initial energy storage request for proposals (RFP).
PREPA is also driving the deployment of distributed solar and storage, including a virtual power plant (VPP) programme for which it selected residential energy solutions provider Sunrun to manage, in late 2022.
The DOE and its LPO embarked on soaring grant and loan activity after Donald Trump’s second term election, as reported by Energy-storage.news (Premium access article).
The fate of the LPO over the next four years is uncertain. With Trump’s inauguration today (20 January) – the same day as the US federally recognised holiday Martin Luther King Jr. Day – this announcement could mark the end of this kind of significant investment from the office for some time, though that remains to be seen.
In December, the DOE released its draft Energy Storage Strategy and Roadmap (SRM), a plan providing strategic direction and opportunities to optimise DOE’s energy storage investments ahead of the incoming Trump-Vance administration.
An up-to-date list of all LPO projects with utility borrowers can be found here (DOE official site).
