The U.S. Department of Energy said Thursday it would back a Nebraska project to convert natural gas into hydrogen, representing the first conditional loan guarantee of its kind under the presidency of Joe Biden.
With a loan of up to US $ 1.04 billion that would be guaranteed by the Department of Energy, the commercial scale company Monolith Nebraska LLC aims to supply hydrogen to the agricultural sector. Carbon black also produced by the plant would be used in tires, plastic production and other materials.
The move represents a resurgence of the Department of Energy’s office of loan programs, which aims to use more than $ 40 billion in loan authorization to accelerate the development and deployment of clean energy technologies. The conditional loan guarantee is the first of its kind offered under the Biden Administration and the first to go to a non-nuclear project since 2016.
Although the office was largely inactive under former President Donald Trump, it previously provided a $ 465 million loan to Tesla Inc., helped finance the nation’s first large-scale solar photovoltaic projects, and provided a $ US $ 1 loan guarantee. 535 million to Solyndra LLC, a California company that collapsed in 2011.
The program also provided critical support to Southern Co.’s Vogtle nuclear plant in Georgia.
The director of the Office of Loan Programs, Jigar Shah, a clean technology pioneer who helped bring solar power to the masses, has emphasized the importance of providing a bridge for the rapid deployment of clean energy technologies.
Monolith intends to expand its Olive Creek facility in Hallam, Nebraska, with the new loan. The project is the first on a commercial scale to implement methane pyrolysis technology that converts natural gas into carbon black and hydrogen.
