The Loan Programs Office of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has made a conditional commitment for a loan guarantee for up to $861 million to finance construction of solar-plus-storage projects and standalone storage projects in Puerto Rico.
The project developer and prospective borrower, Clean Flexible Energy LLC, is an indirect subsidiary of AES Corporation (AES) and TotalEnergies Holdings USA, Inc., and is managed under a joint venture agreement between the two.
The planned facilities, located in the municipalities of Guayama and Salinas, include two sites encompassing 200 MW of solar co-located with 285 MW of 4-hour batteries (1.14 GWh). Two other standalone battery storage sites would have a storage capacity not disclosed by DOE.
Puerto Rico currently has 154 MW of utility-scale solar, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The U.S. territory’s distributed solar capacity reached 842 MW by April this year, while residential storage has reached 1.6 GWh. The consultancy Wood Mackenzie has projected that over the next ten years more than 90% of Puerto Rico’s solar additions will be distributed solar.
Puerto Rico’s Act 17 calls for reaching 40% renewable generation by 2025—a target that is now very challenging to meet—and to reach 60% by 2040 and 100% by 2050.
Puerto Rico’s technical potential for utility-scale solar ranges from 14.2 GW under a “less land” scenario to 44.7 GW under a “more land” scenario, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s “PR 100” summary report published early this year. A technical potential analysis does not consider the financial viability of projects.
To secure the loan guarantee, Clean Flexible Energy LLC must first satisfy certain technical, legal, environmental, and financial conditions before DOE enters into definitive financing documents.
AES operates 19 GW of renewables capacity globally as part of its 35 GW generating portfolio, according to an investor presentation. AES also operates electric utilities.
TotalEnergies aims to reach 28 GW of installed renewable capacity globally this year, according to an investor presentation. The firm is also involved in fossil fuel production, refining and sales and electricity generation.
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