LPO Year in Review 2024

These past four years have been the most productive in LPO’s history. Under the Biden-Harris Administration, the Office has announced 53 deals totaling approximately $107.57 billion in committed project investment––approximately $46.95 billion for 28 active conditional commitments and approximately $60.62 billion for 25 closed loans and loan guarantees. These investments are supporting job creation and preventing pollution while driving American competitiveness in the global economy. LPO is now processing an average of three transactions per month and moving at the speed of business. 

In 2021, we articulated a vision for the United States Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office (LPO) as a catalyst for a new American clean energy industrial strategy––one that enables entrepreneurs and innovators to not just invent here in the U.S. but to build here, too. With implementation of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) underway, America is doing big things again. U.S. clean energy investment more than doubled from $111 billion in 2020 to $236 billion in 2023, creating more than 400,000 clean energy jobs. The private sector is leading, enabled by U.S. government policy and partnerships. 

The United States’ energy economy has a historic opportunity over the next ten years to advance our next-generation technology in the context of geopolitical competition with China and accelerating domestic load growth driven by a renaissance in U.S. manufacturing, rising electrification, and the AI-driven data center boom. Globally, China continues to dominate battery supply chains using last year's technology. China is also scaling up nuclear power. China scaled up government-subsidized manufacturing–– much of it leveraging technologies invented in the United States. But today the United States is leveraging its next-generation technology and is starting to catch up across important technologies and sectors. 

Domestically, U.S. electricity growth rate projections have tripled, with demand forecast to increase by 15.8% by 2029; five-year peak load forecasts have increased by 128 gigawatts. The shape of this new load demands we deploy new solutions and technologies with transformative potential: clean firm technologies that add energy mix diversity and resilience, grid-enhancing technologies that accelerate interconnection and increase utilization of our existing grid, and demand flexibility enabled by virtual power plants (VPPs) that increases energy affordability and reliability. Each of these technologies are now on track to achieve the necessary level of capital formation and scale to achieve commercial liftoff. 

Meeting the moment requires building on current momentum––enabling near-term power-led economic development while positioning the United States to dominate the future global energy economy. Although American clean energy investment crossed $300 billion in 2023, estimates suggest that this level of investment needs to more than triple to achieve the country’s clean energy goals. Investible “dry powder” for new equity investment into clean energy startups remains at around $80 to 90 billion––capital available to support U.S. innovators and entrepreneurs to scale next generation energy solutions. 

With AI sparking a data center development race, securing access to reliable, firm power has become a central competitive advantage. Hyperscalers, investors, and developers are pouring billions into energy infrastructure, with multiple innovative partnerships announced in 2024 alone. Capital is forming, but the rules of deployment have only recently been written. Public-private partnerships will continue to play a necessary role in meeting the pace and scale of collective ambition. 

DOE and LPO have established a model of public-private partnership to maximize the quality and effectiveness of engagement through active dialogue and intentional coordination. The Pathways to Commercial Liftoff effort combined with formalized feedback loops and ongoing private sector engagement at events such as Demonstrate Deploy Decarbonize have sharpened decision making in policy execution and private sector investment. The full government toolkit is extensive––to de-risk investment, accelerate innovation, drive execution, and strengthen global competitiveness. Applying the right tools for the right duration at the right technological adoption readiness will be essential to continue supporting emerging technologies across the bridge to bankability. In 2024, LPO truly demonstrated its role as a tool to strengthen the United States’ energy economy, security and prosperity. 

2024 Accomplishments 

This year was the most productive in LPO’s history. The Office closed 14 loans and loan guarantees in 2024 and submitted 15 additional deals for conditional commitments that did not reach financial close during 2024. LPO is now processing several deals per month and moving at the speed of business. These projects are based in almost every state in the country and will catalyze the next set of trillion-dollar industries over the next ten years. The investments include emerging clean energy technologies on the path to commercial liftoff such as VPPs and sustainable aviation fuels; domestic manufacturing investments to reshore and rebuild and compete with China, such as a loan guarantee to QCells for solar supply chain manufacturing; and grid modernization investments to help utilities provide affordable, reliable electricity to consumers while meeting rapid demand growth to support continued U.S. economic prosperity, such as conditional commitments to PG&E and Wisconsin Electric Power Company. 

Highlights from 2024 include the following: 

• Enabling the first restart of an American nuclear powerplant via a $1.52 billion loan guarantee to Holtec Palisades, supporting restoration and resumption of service of the 800-MW electric nuclear generating station in Covert Township, Michigan. This was also LPO’s first loan guarantee under the Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment (EIR) title. 
• Helping utilities modernize their grids and utilize renewable energy sources to meet load growth. For example, LPO provided ~$40 billion across 11 utilities to enable hydropower generation, battery storage, transmission upgrades, grid-enhancing technologies, and virtual power plants while ensuring 100% of interest savings flow to ratepayers. 
• Bolstering Tribal energy sovereignty by closing the first Tribal Energy Financing Program loan to Viejas Microgrid for a solar-plus-storage microgrid on the Tribal lands of the Viejas Band of the Kumeyaay Indians near Alpine, California. The $72.8 loan guarantee will enable deployment of a 15-MW photovoltaic solar generation system and a 38-MWh long-duration energy storage (LDES) system. 
• Strengthening Puerto Rico’s energy resilience and improving affordability through Project Marahu, an $861.3 million loan to finance construction of two solar photovoltaic (PV) farms equipped with battery storage and two standalone battery energy storage systems (BESS) in Puerto Rico. Across several loans and conditional commitments, LPO will provide over $2B to Puerto Rico to unlock over 850MW of batteries that will help stabilize the grid in 2025. 
• Broadening the U.S. manufacturing base in batteries and lithium processing, the US is on track to producing all of the EV batteries it needs by 2030 in the United States. We are also on track to meet all of our domestic Lithium needs by 2031 and export Lithium to our allies by 2035. 
• Rebuilding the U.S. domestic solar manufacturing supply chain through a $1.45 billion closed loan guarantee to QCells. The loan guarantee will fund the first fully integrated silicon-based solar manufacturing facility constructed in the United States in over a decade, helping address gaps in the domestic solar manufacturing supply chain. 
• Accelerating deployment of high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission through a $4.9 billion conditional commitment to Grain Belt. The loan guarantee would help finance a 2,500-megawatt transmission line to connect multiple regional grids, strengthen grid resilience, and deliver clean, reliable, and affordable power across the Midwest. 
• Completing implementation of the OneLPO operating model and cadence, streamlining the application process while continuing to apply robust risk management practices. 
• Publishing full Community Benefits Plans (CBPs) to help LPO applicants increase certainty and quality of engagement with communities to de-risk and accelerate deployment. 
• Supporting the next wave of DOE Pathways to Commercial Liftoff reports, including Innovative Grid Deployment, Next-Generation Geothermal Power, Offshore Wind, and Sustainable Aviation Fuel. 
• Hosting the second annual Demonstrate Deploy Decarbonize conference, convening over 1,500 decision makers from across the private sector, government, and broader ecosystem. The event focused on accelerating the deployment of critical energy and decarbonization technologies and supply chains in the United States.

Advancing U.S. Energy Leadership in 2025 and Beyond

The LPO team will continue to advance America’s energy economy and support commitment of remaining loan authority consistent with Congressional intent. As of January 17, there are over 160 applicants seeking over $200B in loan proceeds to develop their projects (see the Monthly Application Activity Report below). These projects are proposed by the best and brightest of U.S. entrepreneurs and innovators––and they are depending on LPO’s continued support and vigilance. LPO’s also maintains current portfolio of almost $100B in closed loans where we are closely monitoring construction and operations. LPO will continue to provide the highest level of oversight and performance management as effective stewards of taxpayer dollars. 

Together, LPO’s pipeline and portfolio paint a picture of the future of the United States’ energy economy––accelerating deployment of innovative technologies, strengthening domestic manufacturing, creating high quality jobs, modernizing the grid, and unlocking power-led economic development to win the AI race. The true potential of these investments is in continuing to set the trajectory of the competitiveness, resilience, and affordability of the U.S. energy system and economy in the decades to come. 

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, leading LPO’s loan authority to support deployment of innovative clean energy, advanced transportation, and Tribal energy projects in the United States.