Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) requested comments on its draft solicitation for advanced fossil energy loan guarantee projects that significantly reduce greenhouse gas and other pollution emissions. This Advanced Fossil Energy Projects loan guarantee solicitation was authorized in Section 1703 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, and DOE is moving forward with this solicitation as part of the Obama Administration’s Climate Action Plan.
As part of this solicitation, DOE may make available more than $8 billion in loan guarantee authority for eligible projects. As envisioned, eligible projects would be advanced fossil energy projects and facilities that reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the areas of advanced resource development, carbon capture, low-carbon power systems, and efficiency improvements. The program was included in EPAct 2005 because advanced fossil energy projects are typically unable to obtain conventional commercial financing due to the high level of risk involved in the technologies.
Advanced Resource Development – Projects in this category will “employ new or significantly improved technologies that avoid, reduce, or sequester air pollutants or greenhouse gas emissions from development, recovery, and production of traditional and non-traditional fossil energy resources.”
Carbon Capture – Projects in this category will “integrate fossil fuel usage with new or improved technology that captures and removes CO2 for permanent storage in underground formations or through beneficial reuse.”
Low-Carbon Power Systems – Projects in this category will “utilize fossil fuels for electricity generation using novel processes or improved technologies that can seamlessly integrate with CO2 storage or beneficial reuse.”
Efficiency Improvements – Projects in this category will “incorporate new or improved technologies to increase efficiencies and substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with fossil fuel supply and use.”
Specifically, the Department is seeking “comments regarding the weighting percentage allocated to each category for evaluations (Programmatic, Technical, Policy, and Financial) and the categories themselves.” Companies and entities with advanced fossil energy technologies that would like to see the solicitation tailored to specifically include their type of technology or that have technologies that are not contemplated in the DOE draft solicitation should submit comments on the solicitation.
Comments on the draft solicitation announcement are due by September 9, 2013. Comments can be sent to DraftLPOFossilSolicitationComments@hq.doe.gov.