The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO) announced two conditional commitments and one loan closing in Puerto Rico, totalling over US$1.2 billion.
On the last working day before now-president Trump’s inauguration, the LPO announced funding for three projects, which are all contracted with the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), which is working to gradually replace Puerto Rico’s fossil fuel generation with renewable energy and battery energy storage systems (BESS) through 2032 following a devastating hurricane in 2017.
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The announced loan closing is for developer-operator Convergent Energy. The loan of US$584.5 million will be used to finance a 100MW photovoltaic (PV) system with a 55MW/55MWh BESS in the municipality of Coamo, Puerto Rico. It will also help fund three other standalone BESS projects, a 25MW/100MWh system in Caguas, a 100MW/400MWh system in Peñuelas and a 100MW/400MWh system in Ponce.
The DOE’s LPO also announced a conditional commitment of US$489.4 million to Pattern, a subsidiary of Pattern Energy Group, for three standalone BESS projects. The loan would be used for the 50MW/200MWh BESS in Arecibo, a 50MW/200MWh project in Santa Isabel and an 80MW/320MWh BESS and integrated 70MWac solar PV system in Arecibo.
Additionally, the LPO’s announcement included a conditional commitment of US$133.6 million to Infinigen, a subsidiary of AL-Infinigen Operating, for a 32.1MWac solar PV project integrated with a 14.45/4.76MWh BESS and a co-located standalone 50MW/200MWh BESS expansion in the municipality of Yabucoa.
If finalised, collectively, these projects would more than double the LPO’s support for utility-scale solar generation and battery storage in Puerto Rico.
