Energy plans to restart solar finance spigot closed since Solyndra

The Energy Department is planning to approve loan guarantees for two solar technology manufacturers through the same investment program that backed Solyndra and Abound Solar Inc. -- both of which filed for bankruptcy after losing millions of taxpayer dollars, Bloomberg reports.

SoloPower Inc. and 1366 Technologies Inc., which qualified for guarantees last year, are working to meet the milestones they need to access the credit and could receive approval by the end of the year, executives at the two companies said.

SoloPower was awarded a $197 million guarantee to make rolls of flexible solar panels. The company can get a hold of the Energy loan money once its first commercial production line is operational. 1366 Technologies won approval to borrow as much as $150 million to produce silicon wafers for solar panels if it is able to set up a demo plant and find private money to match the loan, according to the article.

That would be the first funding disbursed to U.S. solar manufacturers since Solyndra announced its bankruptcy in August 2011 after receiving $527 million in Energy loan guarantees. The Solyndra fiasco turned the loan program, designed to support emerging green technology, into a political hot potato. Compounding the criticisms, the agency also expects taxpayer losses of $40 million to $60 million from Abound Solar, which filed for court protection from creditors July 2 and was awarded a $400 million loan guarantee in 2010.

Energy Department officials were set to testify before Congress on Thursday to counter Republican legislative attacks against the loan guarantee program.

David Frantz, acting executive director of the loan programs office, was expected to tell lawmakers that the agency is improving processes to monitor the projects it is guaranteeing, according to written testimony. The loan programs office, one of the largest sources of debt financing for clean energy projects in the country, has committed or closed $35 billion in direct loans and loan guarantees and financed nearly three dozen projects, according to the agency.