The DOE Loan Guarantee application deadline has been pushed back to December 31

DOE Loan Guarantee application deadline has been pushed back to December 31 | Norton Rose Fulbright

November 01, 2006 | By Keith Martin in Washington, DC

THE DOE LOAN GUARANTEE application deadline has been pushed back to December 31.

The deadline to apply for loan guarantees for energy projects had been November 6. The new deadline is for “pre” applications. Anyone who has already filed his or hers will be able to revise it before the new deadline.

The loan guarantees in question were authorized by Congress in the Energy Policy Act in August 2005. The Department of Energy issued guidelines in August 2006 that apply to the first round of loan guarantees to be issued under the program. The guidelines require pre-applicants to submit a business and financial plan, a financial model and commitment letters from lenders and sponsors. The department has heard a lot of complaints about the volume of information required at the preapplication stage. The extension in the deadline is partly a response to these complaints.

Ten categories of projects qualify potentially for guarantees in the first round: biomass, hydro- gen, solar, wind and hydro, coal, carbon sequestration, efficient electricity transmission and delivery and energy reliability, alternative fuel vehicles, industrial energy efficiency projects and pollution control equipment.

All projects have to meet two basic requirements to qualify for the guarantees: they must avoid, reduce or sequester pollutants and gases, and they must use new or significantly-improved technologies when compared to technologies in general use in the market.

The department will issue guarantees of up to $2 billion in total in the first round. No fee must be paid with the pre-application. The department is expected to notify pre-applicants within 90 days about whether they made it into the full application phase of the process.

No actual guarantees will be issued until Congress appropriates money for the program.

Keith Martin