On January 17, 2025, LPO announced two conditional commitments and one loan closing to power producers in Puerto Rico comprising over $1.2 billion in total.
January 17, 2025
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Jigar Shah
Former Director, Loan Programs Office
Jigar Shah served as Director of the Loan Programs Office (LPO) at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) from March 2021 to January 2025. He led and directed LPO’s loan authority to support deployment of innovative clean energy, advanced transportation, and Tribal energy projects in the United States. Prior, Shah was co-founder and President at Generate Capital, where he focused on helping entrepreneurs accelerate decarbonization solutions through the use of low-cost infrastructure-as-a service financing. Prior to Generate Capital, Shah founded SunEdison, a company that pioneered “pay as you save” solar financing. After SunEdison, Shah served as the founding CEO of the Carbon War Room, a global non-profit founded by Sir Richard Branson and Virgin Unite to help entrepreneurs address climate change.
Shah was also featured in TIME's list of the "100 Most Influential People" in 2024.
Originally from Illinois, Shah holds a B.S. from the University of Illinois-UC and an MBA from the University of Maryland College Park.
On January 17, 2025, LPO announced two conditional commitments and one loan closing to power producers in Puerto Rico comprising over $1.2 billion in total. Today’s announcements each support a project contracted with the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) to gradually replace Puerto Rico’s fossil fuel generation assets with renewable energy and battery storage systems through 2032. The announcements include:
- The closing a $584.5 million loan guarantee to subsidiaries of Convergent Energy and Power Inc. (Convergent) to finance a 100-MW solar photovoltaic (PV) system with a 55 MW (55 MWh) battery energy storage system (BESS) in the municipality of Coamo and BESS installations in the municipalities of Caguas (25MW/100MWh), Peñuelas (100MW/400MWh), and Ponce (up to 100MW/400MWh), and
- A conditional commitment for a loan guarantee of up to $133.6 million to a subsidiary of AL-Infinigen Operating, LP (Infinigen). for a 32.1 MW-ac solar PV system with an integrated 14.45 MW (4.76 MWh) BESS, and a co-located, standalone 50 MW (200 MWh) BESS expansion in the municipality of Yabucoa, and
- A conditional commitment for a loan guarantee of up to $489.4 million to a subsidiary of Pattern Energy Group LP (Pattern) for three stand-alone BESS in the municipalities of Arecibo (50 MW/200 MWh), and Santa Isabel (50 MW /200 MWh and 80 MW/320 MW), and a 70 MW-ac solar PV system with an integrated BESS in the municipality of Arecibo.
If all finalized, these projects would more than double LPO’s support for utility-scale solar generation and battery energy storage in Puerto Rico.
| January 17, 2025 LPO Announcements Serving Puerto Rico | |||||
| PROJECT | DOLLARS | MUNICIPALITY(S) | MW STORAGE | MWH STORAGE | MW-AC SOLAR |
| Convergent | $584.5 M | Coamo, Ponce, Caguas, Penuelas | 225 | 900 | 100 |
| Yabucoa | $133.6 M | Yabucoa | 50 | 200 | 32 |
| Pattern | $489.4 M | Arecibo, Santa Isabel | 180 | 720 | 70 |
| TOTAL: | $1.2075 B | 7 Municipalities | 455 MW | 1820 MWh | 202 MW |
*bold project name indicates the project has reached financial close
| |||||
With low-cost debt and a strong due diligence process, LPO is a power tool in the financial toolbelt the Biden-Harris Administration has assembled to rebuild an affordable, reliable, and clean power system in Puerto Rico. LPO’s potential to provide lowest-cost financing is exactly why the presidentially appointed Federal Oversight Management Board in 2023 directed new power producers selling electricity to PREPA to attempt securing LPO funding prior to project construction. As a result of reliance on imported fuel, the persistent threat of tropical storms, and underinvested infrastructure, Puerto Ricans today face average energy costs that are twice the US average – all while consuming only one quarter of the energy of the US per capita.
LPO’s initial loan to a power producer in Puerto Rico, Project Marahu, closed in October 2024 and when complete will add more than 200 MW-AC of solar and up to 285 MW of stand-alone energy storage to Puerto Rico’s grid. Through its September 2023 partial loan guarantee to Project Hestia, LPO also supports virtual power plant (VPP)-ready rooftop solar and battery storage installations in Puerto Rico. As a nationwide project, Hestia’s sponsor is committed to at least 20% of installations under Project Hestia going to homeowners in Puerto Rico.
| LPO Announcements Before January 17, 2025 Serving Puerto Rico | |||||
| PROJECT | DOLLARS | MUNICIPALITY(S) | MW STORAGE | MWH STORAGE | MW-AC SOLAR |
| Marahu | $861.3 M | Guayama (Jobos), Salinas | 285 MW | 1140 MWh | 200 MW |
| Hestia | $3.0 B nationwide | Nationwide (includes Puerto Rico) | - | - | 568 MW nationwide |
*bold project name indicates the project has reached financial close
| |||||
Notably, each of the projects announced today includes a significant amount of energy storage. As part of its procurement plan, PREPA seeks to install 1,500 MW of battery storage and requires a minimum capacity of storage be co-located with each utility-scale solar project. These resources are integral not just because they enable PREPA’s goal of 3,750 MW solar, but because they add reliability and stability to PREPA’s system that aging centralized plants are struggling to provide. Energy storage systems currently online in Puerto Rico are being dispatched every day. When including Marahu, LPO’s closed and conditionally committed financing supports over 100% of the capacity PREPA aimed to procured under its initial request for energy storage project proposals, the first of six.
The financing announced today solidifies LPO’s continued commitment to help strengthen Puerto Rico’s grid modernization and energy resilience. Visit LPO’s Active Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment Projects by Type of Borrower page for an up-to-date list of all LPO announcements in Puerto Rico. For more information on LPO’s assessment of these projects as eligible for EIR financing, see LPO’s July 2023 blog post.