The Energy Department’s Loan Programs Office has said the White House’s support for solar photovoltaic projects helped to extend private financing to an additional 45 utility-scale solar PV projects.The LPO’s update to a 2015 report indicates the DOE-provided loans were used to expand the first five utility-scale solar PV projects larger than 100 megawatts in the U.S. by a ten-fold increase, DOE said Friday.
“When the Obama administration began, there were zero large-scale solar PV projects in the United States,” said Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz.
“Our Loan Programs Office committed funding for the first five, and today we can say 45 more have been built with private financing, opening a clean energy market that did not exist before,†added Moniz.
DOE also held a dedication ceremony for the 150-megawatt Mesquite Solar 3 PV solar project in Maricopa County, Arizona, intended to supply power to fourteen Navy installations in southern California.
