LPO Closes $2.5 Billion ATVM Loan to Ultium Cells
DOE announced it closed a $2.5 billion loan to Ultium Cells LLC—a joint venture between General Motors and LG Energy Solution—to finance the construction of three new lithium-ion battery cell manufacturing facilities in Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee. The facilities will produce large format, pouch-type cells that use a state-of-the-art nickel-cobalt-manganese-aluminum chemistry to deliver more range at less cost and can be arranged in different combinations for use in a wide range of vehicles, from passenger cars to buses to heavy-duty trucks.
First announced as a conditional commitment for a loan in July 2022, the Ultium Cells project marks LPO’s first closed loan exclusively for a battery cell manufacturing project under the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) program.The project is expected to create 6,000 good-paying construction jobs and 5,100 operations jobs when the financed facilities are at full capacity and the manufactured cells will supply General Motors with crucial components as it works to deliver on its plan to eliminate 100% of tailpipe emissions from its new light-duty vehicles by 2035.
For more details, see LPO's Ultium Cells portfolio project page, read the full DOE press release, read the project's July 2022 conditional commitment announcement, and find out more about LPO advanced transportation project financing via the ATVM program.
Thanks to the enactment of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the LPO has seen a reinvigoration of its three existing loan programs, including the creation of two new financing programs. Some major program impacts include:
- IRA appropriates $5 billion through September 30, 2026, to carry out the new Title 17 Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment (EIR) Program, with a total cap on loans of up to $250 billion. EIR offers loan guarantees to projects that retool, repower, repurpose, or replace energy infrastructure that has ceased operations, or enable operating energy infrastructure to avoid, reduce, utilize, or sequester air pollutants or anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases. LPO recently released initial application instructions for EIR projects.
How LPO Practices Good Governance
The LPO team is constantly working to improve operations and portfolio management in order to safeguard the American taxpayer and adhere to principles of good governance. In two of the latest installments of the "Getting to Know LPO" blog series, we take a closer look at how LPO actively works to manage risk, monitor a growing portfolio, and protect taxpayer interests:
LPO takes seriously its responsibility to protect taxpayer resources. Ever since its first loan programs were authorized by Congress in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, LPO has been evolving and making improvements to the office that have increased both internal and interagency oversight, clarified its management responsibilities, institutionalized risk management practices, and put in place portfolio-wide safeguards and monitoring of all LPO projects, among other enhancements. Read the full LPO blog post.
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LPO's good governance efforts are consistent with and adhere to recently enacted changes from both the Energy Act of 2020 and BIL related to how LPO evaluates risk, ensures proper oversight of its programs, and promotes transparency with regards to its portfolio. Read the full LPO blog post.
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In February 2010, DOE offered conditional commitments for a total of $8.33 billion in loan guarantees for the construction and operation of two new, innovative 1,100 megawatt Westinghouse AP1000® nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle. In March 2019, DOE announced up to $3.7 billion in additional guarantees of loans to finance the continued construction of Vogtle Units 3 and 4. This additional financing represented DOE’s commitment to both seeing the project through to success and catalyzing a new nuclear industry in the United States.
Fast-forward to October 2022, with more than 9,000 construction jobs at peak and 800 permanent jobs once the units begin operating, Vogtle is currently the largest jobs-producing construction project in the state of Georgia, and Georgia Power recently reported that fuel load into the Plant Vogtle Unit 3 reactor core has been completed, marking a historic milestone toward start-up and commercial operation.
Read more about this landmark nuclear project on LPO's blog and at LPO's Vogtle portfolio project page.
LPO is excited to introduce the first installment of our "Next Generation of LPO Financing" illustrated poster series, highlighting the LPO technology sectors used in reporting our application activity every month (see: Energy.gov/LPO/MAAR). The first three featured LPO tech sectors are: Hydrogen, Critical Materials, and Advanced Fossil, representing recent conditional commitments or issued loans, including Advanced Clean Energy Storage, Syrah Vidalia, and Monolith.
Inspired by the iconic Works Progress Administration (WPA) posters of the late 1930’s and early 1940's, this LPO poster series is a visual representation of the unprecedented scale and potential impact of the suite of national clean energy investments resulting from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
You can find downloadable versions of each of the first three posters and more information about its corresponding sector at the Energy.gov/LPO/Posters. Stay tuned for more posters from this series, and in the meantime, learn more about the 13 LPO tech sectors.
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