BOSTON, March 18, 2024 — World Energy, LLC, a low-carbon solutions pioneer and leading SAF producer, today announced it has been invited by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to submit the Part II Application for an approximately $2 billion loan guarantee through the Title 17 Clean Energy Financing Program.
The Title 17 program, offered through the DOE’s Loan Programs Office (LPO) and established by the Energy Policy Act of 2005, plays a crucial role in accelerating the deployment of innovative, large-scale clean energy projects focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. If awarded, the loan guarantee will provide essential funding for the construction of World Energy’s Houston renewable fuels facility, which will produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and clean hydrogen to decarbonize the hardest-to-abate sectors, including aviation and heavy-duty trucking.
World Energy founder and CEO, Gene Gebolys said, “As a first mover in the SAF production and decarbonization markets, World Energy is committed to displacing fossil jet fuel with SAF as quickly and efficiently as possible. We applaud the leadership shown by the Biden-Harris administration and the Department of Energy to collaborate with private industry to meet this critical need.”
World Energy’s invitation to advance in the loan guarantee application process highlights the company’s dedication to sustainable innovation and carbon reduction solutions for hard-to-abate sectors. The Houston facility will produce more than 250 million gallons of SAF annually, helping to increase the availability of SAF and drive meaningful progress towards decarbonizing aviation. SAF delivers a lifecycle greenhouse gas reduction of more than 80% compared to fossil jet fuel. Across multiple facilities, World Energy plans to produce one billion gallons per year of SAF by 2030, as part of the Biden administration’s SAF Grand Challenge, which sets a goal for US producers to supply three billion gallons of SAF per year by 2030.
DOE’s invitation to submit a Part II application is not an assurance that DOE will invite an applicant into the due diligence and term sheet negotiation process, that DOE will offer a term sheet to an applicant, that DOE will issue a loan guarantee, or that the terms and conditions of a loan guarantee will be consistent with terms proposed by an applicant. The foregoing matters are wholly dependent on the results of DOE review and evaluation of a Part II Application, and DOE’s determination whether to proceed.