In his weekly address on Saturday, President Obama announced the Department of Energy will loan almost $2 billion to two solar energy companies: Abengoa Solar and Abound Solar Manufacturing. The loans will go towards developing solar energy plants.
With the funding, Abengoa will build a solar plant in Arizona that can power 70,000 homes. When completed in 2013, the plant will be one of the largest in the world. It will also store part of the energy it produces, becoming the first plant in the U.S. to do so.
Abound will receive $400 million to build two plants, one in Colorado and the other in a former Chrysler factory in Indiana. The funding comes from the Recovery Act, and the plants are expected to create more than 1,500 permanent jobs and at least 2,000 construction jobs.
The loans are part of the President’s policy to use government loans to help jump-start the alternative energy industry.