INNOVATIVE ENERGY AND INNOVATIVE SUPPLY CHAIN

Title 17 Clean Energy Financing – Innovative Energy and Innovative Supply Chain 

Financing for projects that: 

Deploy innovative clean energy technologies at commercial scale (Innovative Energy) 

Or  

Employ innovative manufacturing processes or manufacture innovative technologies at commercial scale (Innovative Supply Chain) 

Overview

Through the Innovative categories of the Title 17 Clean Energy Financing Program, LPO can finance projects that deploy new or significantly improved high-impact clean energy technology (Innovative Energy) or that employ new or significantly improved technology in the manufacturing process for a qualifying clean energy technology or manufacture innovative products with an eligible technology end-use (Innovative Supply Chain).

LPO-financed projects show private debt and equity investors that innovative clean energy technologies are bankable and ready for large-scale deployment. LPO has a strong track record of catalyzing clean energy deployment, having financed the first utility-scale photovoltaic solar projects in the United States, one of the world’s largest wind projects, the next generation of advanced nuclear reactors, and the nation’s first clean hydrogen energy and storage project.

Like commercial lenders and other private capital market lenders, LPO underwrites loans with the expectation that they will be repaid with interest. Unlike most lenders, LPO has in-house technical experts who work with applicants to understand the project’s true technical risks. From there, LPO’s credit, market, environmental, and legal professionals work with applicants to structure loan terms accordingly. The result is often access to lower-interest loans than would otherwise be available. The early deployments LPO finances de-risk follow-on deployments. 

LPO engages early with applicants and offers flexible financing that private lenders typically do not provide for projects developing innovative components for the low-carbon supply chain. By doing so, LPO can jumpstart production and minimize future supply chain bottlenecks for innovative clean energy technologies.  

Defining “Innovative”  

LPO considers projects innovative if they employ a New or Significantly Improved Technology. (See page 15 of the Program Guidance or the Title 17 Interim Final Rule for a definition of New or Significantly Improved Technology.) 

New or Significantly Improved Technology refers to technologies concerned with the production, consumption, storage, or transportation of energy, including of associated critical minerals and other components or other eligible energy-related project categories, and that is not a commercial technology, and that either: 

1. Has only recently been developed, discovered, or learned; or
2. Involves or constitutes one or more meaningful and important improvements in productivity or value, in comparison to commercial technologies used in the United States.

When evaluating whether a technology is “New or Significantly Improved,” LPO will consider whether the technology could have a catalytic effect on the market and whether the technology has the potential to be employed in other commercial projects.

Eligibility

In addition to the common eligibility requirements that apply to all Title 17 Clean Energy Financing Program projects, Innovative Energy and Innovative Supply Chain projects must meet several additional eligibility criteria. 

All Innovative projects must align with one of the following eligible technologies:  

1. Advanced nuclear energy
2. Efficient electrical generation, transmission, and distribution
3. Supply of critical minerals
4. Carbon capture and sequestration technologies
5. Advanced fossil energy technology
6. Oil refineries
7. Energy storage technologies
8. Production facilities for the manufacture of fuel-efficient vehicles or parts of those vehicles     
9. Renewable energy systems
10. Industrial decarbonization technologies
11. Hydrogen fuel cell technology 
12. Pollution control equipment  
13. Efficient end-use energy technologies 

Possible Project Areas  

The following is a set of project types that could be eligible for Innovative Energy financing, subject to LPO review. These examples are neither exhaustive nor limiting.