THIN FILM SOLAR PANELS

Archive for October, 2011

U.S. Closes almost $5 Billion in Solar Power Loans

Sept. 30 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. Energy Department approved $4.75 billion in loan guarantees for four solar energy projects on the final day of a 2005 program funded by the stimulus act.

First Solar, the largest maker of thin-film solar panels, said Sept. 22 that its 550-megawatt Topaz Solar Farm in California wouldn’t get a $1.9 billion guarantee because it couldn’t meet the loan’s conditions by today’s deadline. In addition to the two today, the company won a $967 million guarantee for a project in Arizona in August.

First Solar received today guarantees of $646 million for its 230-megawatt Antelope Valley Solar Ranch 1 project, in Los Angeles County, and $1.46 billion for its 550-megawatt Desert Sunlight plant, in Riverside County, the Energy Department said today on its website.

The solar company immediately announced that it had sold Antelope Valley to Exelon Corp., while NextEra Inc. and General Electric Co. purchased Desert Sunlight. Exelon said it will invest as much as much as $1.36 billion in Antelope Valley. First Solar didn’t give a price for the Desert Sunlight sale. The company typically sells the projects it develops, and the guarantees make it easier to find buyers, Alan Bernheimer, a company spokesman, said in an interview.