Title 17 Innovative Clean Energy (Section 1703)

Title 17 Section 1703 Innovative Clean Energy

Supports clean energy projects in fossil, nuclear, and renewable tracks through federal financing pathways.

The Title 17 Section 1703 Innovative Clean Energy program provides federal loan guarantees for commercially ready clean energy projects that have not yet achieved widespread commercial use in the United States. The program operates three parallel rolling solicitations — a Fossil Energy track, a Nuclear Energy track, and a Renewable and Efficient Energy track — each amended and restated on April 18, 2022, with Inflation Reduction Act supplements added through March 2023. Unlike the Section 1706 EDFP program, Section 1703 applicants must demonstrate that their technology is genuinely innovative rather than a commercial replication of existing US market deployments. Projects must have reached TRL 8, confirming commercial readiness prior to application. Typical loan size starts at $100 million given fixed transaction costs that make smaller guarantees economically impractical, and the maximum guarantee is 80 percent of eligible project costs. The program carries approximately $40 billion in statutory loan authority.

Eligible applicants include for-profit companies, nonprofits, universities, and research organizations operating US-based projects; individuals are excluded. The program accepts applications on a continuous basis year-round with no published competitive deadline. Applicants cannot combine Title 17 Section 1703 financing with grants, cooperative agreements, or other federal loan guarantees for the same project phase. Projects for fossil energy applications must include controls or technologies to avoid, reduce, utilize, or sequester air pollutants and anthropogenic emissions. This instrument is a loan guarantee — the borrower is responsible for repaying the full principal.

The application process begins with a free pre-application consultation at energy.gov/EDF/Pre-App, allowing LPO staff to assess fit before the applicant invests in a full submission. Full applications are submitted through the Title 17 Application Portal at apply.loanprograms.energy.gov. Organizations that have previously worked through other LPO programs may leverage prior due-diligence materials in consultation with LPO staff to reduce preparation time.