According to reports from Reuter on January 20th, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is expending the loan credibility for solar projects and offers a 9.67 billion U.S. dollar loan to support the construction of a 290-megawatt photovoltaic solar generating facility located in Yuma County, Arizona.
The Agua Caliente Solar project will use thin film solar panels from First Solar Inc. and estimates to create approximately 400 jobs when it is completed in 2014. The northern California electricity supply company PG&E will purchase power generated from the project. It is the third largest investment from DOE in Solar industry.
Department of Energy had granted 20 billion U.S. dollars loans to Abengoa, a Spanish solar tech company and a local company in Colorado, in the summer of 2010. Moreover, BrightSource, based in the U.S., received a 13.7 billion U.S. dollar loan from DOE for the construction of the first solar power plant in the past 20 years which will be located in the desert of California.