President Biden’s new Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm is ready to let loose $40 billion in Department of Energy loans, the former Michigan governor said on Wednesday at CERAWeek. Granholm has selected Jigar Shah, founder of SunEdison, to spearhead the loan program as Director of the Loan Program Office. The DoE’s loan program has been in place for years, and is responsible, according to IHS Markit, for backing the first five US utility-scale solar projects in the United States. More uncharitably, the DoE’s loan program is also recognized for dispersing $528 million to Solyndra—the solar panel manufacturer that went bankrupt two years after receiving DoE funds. The program, originally created in 2005 under U.S. President Bush, added a renewable energy component four years later, under President Obama. The largest loan, issued in pieces starting in 2014 to 2019, went to VOGTLE in the amount of $12 billion for the construction […]