United States President Barack Obama revealed in his weekly presidential address on Saturday that two solar power companies will receive nearly $2 billion in loan guarantees for their clean energy projects with significant job-creating potential.
Mr. Obama said the Department of Energy will commit $1.45 billion and $400 million for Abengoa Solar Inc. and Abound Solar, respectively. The funding will go to the companies’ solar installation and plant expansion projects that are slated to be completed in the next three years.
Abengoa Solar, a unit of Spanish multinational corporation Abengoa S.A. (MCE:
ABG
), will receive $1.45 billion in loan guarantees to help it build the Solana concentrating solar power project to rise near Gila Bend, Arizona. It is billed to become the largest solar power plant in the world.
The $2 billion project will build a 280-megawatt solar power plant which uses concentrating solar power technology that allows it to store the sun-derived energy it generates. It uses large insulated tanks filled with molten salt to store heat produced from sunlight. This can then be used for making electricity after sundown by producing steam that drives a turbine.
At full capacity, Solana will make enough electricity to power more than 70,000 homes. It will sell electricity to Arizona Public Service over the next 30 years to generate around $4 billion in revenues, according to projections.
Its construction is scheduled to begin by fall, which starts in September, and is expected to be operational by 2013. It will create 1,600 jobs throughout its construction and around 85 permanent jobs once built.
Around 70 percent of the components and products used by Solana, such as mirrors, receiver tubes and heat transfer fluids will be manufactured locally, Mr. Obama said.
Overall, the sale of components would contribute over $1.1 billion to the national economy, he added.
On the other hand, Abound Solar will receive $400 million from the Energy Department to support the construction of two thin-film manufacturing plants. A portion of the loan will be used to expand the company’s existing plant in Longmont, Colorado while the rest will be for a new manufacturing plant that will occupy a former Chrysler factory in Tipton, Indiana.
The company estimates that both facilities will produce enough solar panels to support around 840 MW of solar capacity when it reaches full capacity by 2013. The construction of the facilities will also reportedly create more than 2,000 construction jobs and over 1,500 permanent jobs.
In his announcement, Mr. Obama stressed that the United States has suffered job losses for 22 straight months, although the private sector has created jobs for six months in a row.
«That’s a positive sign. But the truth is the recession from which we’re emerging has left us in a hole that’s about 8 million jobs deep,” Mr. Obama said.
The president added that he has seen “payoff” from investments of this kind. Mr. Obama said investing in a clean energy economy is a key step in creating new industries. However, he believes that the green industry will not provide all the jobs the country lost overnight.
The latest commitment comes out off the $862 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed in February 2009 right after Mr. Obama assumed office. The law allots $90 billion for clean energy investment.
Nearly $40 billion of this has been earmarked as of the first quarter of 2010, of which $9 billion has been dispensed. The government says the funds have also created more than 80,000 clean energy jobs within the same quarter. United States President Barack Obama revealed in his weekly presidential address on Saturday that two solar power companies will receive nearly $2 billion in loan guarantees for their clean energy projects with significant job-creating potential.
Mr. Obama said the Department of Energy will commit $1.45 billion and $400 million for Abengoa Solar Inc. and Abound Solar, respectively. The funding will go to the companies’ solar installation and plant expansion projects that are slated to be completed in the next three years.
Abengoa Solar, a unit of Spanish multinational corporation Abengoa S.A. (MCE:
ABG
), will receive $1.45 billion in loan guarantees to help it build the Solana concentrating solar power project to rise near Gila Bend, Arizona. It is billed to become the largest solar power plant in the world.
The $2 billion project will build a 280-megawatt solar power plant which uses concentrating solar power technology that allows it to store the sun-derived energy it generates. It uses large insulated tanks filled with molten salt to store heat produced from sunlight. This can then be used for making electricity after sundown by producing steam that drives a turbine.
At full capacity, Solana will make enough electricity to power more than 70,000 homes. It will sell electricity to Arizona Public Service over the next 30 years to generate around $4 billion in revenues, according to projections.
Its construction is scheduled to begin by fall, which starts in September, and is expected to be operational by 2013. It will create 1,600 jobs throughout its construction and around 85 permanent jobs once built.
Around 70 percent of the components and products used by Solana, such as mirrors, receiver tubes and heat transfer fluids will be manufactured locally, Mr. Obama said.
Overall, the sale of components would contribute over $1.1 billion to the national economy, he added.
On the other hand, Abound Solar will receive $400 million from the Energy Department to support the construction of two thin-film manufacturing plants. A portion of the loan will be used to expand the company’s existing plant in Longmont, Colorado while the rest will be for a new manufacturing plant that will occupy a former Chrysler factory in Tipton, Indiana.
The company estimates that both facilities will produce enough solar panels to support around 840 MW of solar capacity when it reaches full capacity by 2013. The construction of the facilities will also reportedly create more than 2,000 construction jobs and over 1,500 permanent jobs.
In his announcement, Mr. Obama stressed that the United States has suffered job losses for 22 straight months, although the private sector has created jobs for six months in a row.
«That’s a positive sign. But the truth is the recession from which we’re emerging has left us in a hole that’s about 8 million jobs deep,” Mr. Obama said.
The president added that he has seen “payoff” from investments of this kind. Mr. Obama said investing in a clean energy economy is a key step in creating new industries. However, he believes that the green industry will not provide all the jobs the country lost overnight.
The latest commitment comes out off the $862 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed in February 2009 right after Mr. Obama assumed office. The law allots $90 billion for clean energy investment.
Nearly $40 billion of this has been earmarked as of the first quarter of 2010, of which $9 billion has been dispensed. The government says the funds have also created more than 80,000 clean energy jobs within the same quarter.