"These grants will help America's businesses launch clean energy projects, putting Americans back to work in good construction and manufacturing jobs. The initiative will help double our renewable energy capacity over the next few years and make sure America leads the world in creating the clean energy economy of the future." With these words, US Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) had completed its first round of funding. The amount for this first round totaled $502 million and was awarded to programs throughout the nation. Although no projects in California were funded with this first round, the ARRA program is designed to support approximately 5000 renewable energy production facilities in the United States.
The program provides cash assistance in lieu of the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) to energy production companies. The first round of funding that was announced today will, according to the Obama administration, create approximately 2,000 jobs in the renewable energy industry. Most of the job creation will be in the construction and manufacturing sector. The purpose of the program is to provide upfront capital for companies in the renewable energy industry.
The Obama administration intends to help companies move forward with projects that could not have been realized due to a lack of direct funding.
