
Clean energy jobs
Jigar Shah, the co-founder of Generate and founder of SunEdison (where he pioneered “no-money-down solar”), has been named head of the Biden administration’s DOE Loan Programs Office. It’s a critical post amid the climate emergency and a seemingly good fit for the deployment-minded financier and advocate of carbon-free energy.
The DOE Loan Programs Office supports large-scale energy infrastructure projects, with $40 billion to invest across three programs:
The loan program was established in 2005 and signed into law by President George W. Bush. It’s one of the newer lending programs overseen by the U.S. federal government and provides structured financing and access to debt capital.
The Loan Programs Office portfolio totals over $35 billion and includes the Vogtle nuclear project, plus five large photovoltaic projects that originated during the financial crisis of the late aughts. It also seems to have an inordinate fondness for concentrating solar power. The successful program aims to provide affordable debt with extended tenors and can work with clients in the preapproval process.
Shah has a long public record of favoring financial innovation with an eye toward deployment. He believes the DOE must focus on the deployment of existing technologies, rather than focusing solely on the agency’s research and innovation mission of the past. Shah’s team at Generate deployed capital to drive finance innovation rather than technological revolution.
Here are some collected Shahisms from over the years.
Eric Wesoff is the editorial director at Canary Media.
Clean energy jobs