On June 2, Fotowatio Renewable Ventures, Inc. (FRV) won a $45.6 million conditional commitment loan guarantee from the Department of Energy (DOE) to help the company gain lower-cost financing for its 20-megawatt AC photovoltaic Apex project outside Las Vegas.

John Hancock Life Insurance is the lender for the project, said Fotowatio Senior Vice President Mark McClanahan. At this point, FRV is not seeking out other financial partners to invest in the project.

NV Energy unit Nevada Power Co. signed a 25-year power purchase agreement with FRV for the power that will be produced by the solar farm.

But the DOE will not commit the loan guarantee until certain benchmarks are reached.

“We still have more work to do,” McClanahan said.

To comply with the requirements of the 1705 loan guarantee program, FRV has to break ground on the project by Sept. 31, 2011.

“One of the objectives of the loan-guarantee program was to create jobs right away. Speed is critical,” McClanahan said. During construction the project is expected to create 250 jobs. “We’re planning to break ground in the second half of this year and be online within the next 12 months.”

"This announcement clearly shows that Nevada is well on its way to becoming a global leader in clean energy job creation," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said in a press release. "Thanks to public-private partnerships like the loan guarantee program, scores of clean energy companies such as Fotowatio are bringing projects to Nevada to put people back to work by turning our state's abundant clean energy resources into jobs and economic growth."

The company is developing a total of 280.8 megawatts of solar farms under power-purchase agreements in the U.S. And it has more on the way.

“We have about 1 gigawatt of late-stage developments that have permitting but no power-purchase agreements [at this point],” McClanahan said. “We are focused elsewhere, but primarily in the Southwest.”

The company has a 37-megawatt solar plant already operating in Nevada under contract with NV Energy and is currently building a 34-megawatt project in Austin, Texas, which will be completed this year, he said.

In addition, the company is developing projects in Spain and Italy.

“We’re looking at new markets around the world that are popping up, like China India and Australia. But our real footprint is in the U.S. and Europe,” he said.

Pictured: A field of FRV-built solar arrays. image courtesy of the Nellis Air Force Base.