As the deadline for breaking ground on projects with loan guarantee applications from the Department of Energy’s Loans Program Office (LPO) approaches, there has been a rush of announcements on finalized agreements and conditional commitments over the past few months.

Section 1705 was a temporary program under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 designed to give loan guarantees for renewable energy, power transmission and biofuels projects that start construction by the end of September 2011.

Since March 2009, $37.8 billion in loans have been agreed on 42 projects out of a maximum $40 billion, making it the largest project finance effort in the US according to the LPO.

Utility-scale solar generation projects, largely in California, were the winners, also thanks to state-based initiatives such as the Renewable Portfolio Standard, which requires 33% renewables by 2020.

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