U.S. to fund cutting-edge renewable energy programs

WASHINGTON, April 17 (UPI) -- As much as $4 billion in loan guarantees may be available for cutting-edge renewable energy technologies, the U.S. Department of Energy said.

The Energy Department issued a draft loan guarantee for renewable energy and energy efficiency projects that would avoid, reduce or sequester greenhouse gases found to be linked to climate change.

U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said existing loan guarantee projects helped fund programs that are now commonplace in the U.S. renewable energy portfolio.

"We want to replicate that success by focusing on technologies that are on the edge of commercial-scale deployment today," he said in a statement Wednesday.

The Energy Department said it was tooling the loans toward advanced grid integration, drop-in biofuels, waste-to-energy programs and those that would enhance existing renewable energy facilities.

The draft loan guarantee is part of President Obama's so-called all-of-the-above energy strategy. The loan program came under criticism from Obama's opponents following the 2011 bankruptcy of solar panel company Solyndra, which received $536 million from the federal government before the company collapsed.

[Department of Energy]