US tribal energy projects can apply for USD 2bn in loan guarantees

The US Department of Energy (DOE) will support energy development projects by Native American and Alaska Native communities by providing up to USD 2 billion (EUR 1.7bn) in partial loan guarantees, it announced Tuesday.

The projects eligible to apply under the Tribal Energy Loan Guarantee Program (TELGP) may involve renewables, energy storage, cogeneration, fossil energy production, transmission infrastructure, energy resource extraction, refining or processing, and distributed energy portfolios. DOE said these are just illustrative examples as the programme could back a broad range of projects and activities for the development of various energy resources, products, and services.

DOE is particularly focused on catalysing the use of commercially available technologies in Indian country, it pointed out.

“The Department has heard from tribes that they can have difficulty accessing the debt capital necessary to finance energy development projects that will benefit Indian country,” Energy Secretary Rick Perry said. The partial loan guarantees under TELGP would leverage private sector lending and help boost the availability of commercial debt financing in tribal energy markets.

The first deadline for Part I applications is September 19 and more deadlines will follow every other month.

Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free!