Even though the Department of Energy’s 1705 Loan Guarantee program is winding down, the DOE is still making some hefty project-backing decisions. Case-in-point, on Tuesday (May 10) it issued a $90.6 million conditional commitment loan guarantee to Cogentrix of Alamosa, LLC., which is owned by Goldman Sachs Group.

The loan guarantee will help Cogentrix attract funding to support development of a 30 megawatt concentrating photovoltaic solar farm, called the Alamosa Solar Generating Project. When completed it’s likely that it will be the largest concentrating photovoltaic farm in the world. The project will use Amonix 7700 concentrating photovoltaics mounted on trackers to get the most out of the sun in the day.

“This is the first solar project that Cogentrix has done from scratch and it’s the first loan guarantee for the company,” said Goldman Sachs spokesperson Michael DuVally. DuVally said he wasn’t sure of any other solar projects that Cogentrix was planning or whether the company was pursuing any other loan guarantees. During construction the project will create about 75 and 10 operations jobs. The Amonix systems are designed and built in the U.S.

Construction is required to build the tracker on which the Amonix system is mounted. But once the trackers are complete, the systems can be installed quickly. “Amonix systems install rapidly, similar to the ease of installation of a wind farm. In fact, once pedestals are installed into the ground, the rest of the installation occurs at a rate of about half a megawatt per day,” said Carla Pihowich, vice president of marketing and regulatory at Amonix.

"Colorado has long been a leader in the development and deployment of renewable energy, and this project builds on that record," DOE Secretary Steven Chu said in a press release. "By deploying an innovative, commercially ready technology at utility scale, the Alamosa Solar Generating Project is increasing the generation of clean, renewable power, creating jobs and strengthening the U.S. economy."

Xcel Energy (NYSE: XCL), doing business as Public Service Co. of Colorado, will purchase all of the power generated by the Alamosa Solar Generating Project. The project is expected to produce roughly 75,000 megawatt hours of electricity on an annual basis.

At this point, the 1705 loan guarantee program is shuttering its doors in preparation to meet the September 30, 2011, deadline. But other companies are in the application process and may yet win a loan guarantee. In all, DOE has issued over $30 billion in loans, loan guarantees or offered conditional commitments for loan guarantees totaling to clean energy projects across the nation.

Image of the Amonix 7700 is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons