By Timothy Gardner
WASHINGTON, Oct 28 (Reuters) - The US Department of Energy said on Wednesday it has closed a $5.1 billion loan package to Alliant Energy to expand power generation and bolster the grid at plants in Iowa and Wisconsin.
The investments from the department's loans office will support new natural gas-fired power plants, energy storage systems, and upgrades to existing generation facilities, it said.
The loans will create hundreds of construction-related jobs and deliver more than 2.6 gigawatts of new or upgraded power generation capacity, it said. That's enough power for nearly 1.8 million homes.
The loan had originally been proposed by the administration of former President Joe Biden in his last days in office in January 2025 when it was only a conditional loan of $3 billion.
The office of Energy Dominance Financing, called the Loan Programs Office under Biden, has hundreds of billions of dollars in financing available, the bulk of which Energy Secretary Chris Wright has said will support nuclear power.
More than the name of the office has changed. Its mission during the Biden administration was to provide support to emerging clean energy projects and alternative vehicles that struggled to get bank loans. Now it includes support to projects such as natural gas that have typically been able to get bank loans. Energy storage, which typically includes batteries, was supported in both the initial and the closed loan.
"By bringing new, dependable power online, we are strengthening our nation’s energy security and lowering electricity costs for families and businesses across Iowa and Wisconsin," the loan office director, Gregory Beard, said in a release.
Any lowering of electricity costs could take many years as the loans take place over decades.
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Stephen Coates)