Several companies that former DOE loan czar Jigar Shah gave money to are now in dire financial straits
President Joe Biden’s energy loan czar gave out billions to green energy companies. Now, he’s trying to help them to leave the United States and seek subsidies from European governments.
Jigar Shah, the former director of the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office, has been “talking to officials in Brussels about re-domiciling companies in Europe,” Bloomberg reported this week.
Shah has reportedly started working with “many of the companies that benefited from Biden-era programs [that] are now looking to shift all or part of their business outside the US.”
He told Bloomberg that the European Union has a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to attract these companies, two-thirds of which, he said, are currently based in the United States. But, Shah said, the threat of cuts to federal funding has made green energy executives “nervous and confused,” and European officials will “need to be quick about it” before the businesses go bankrupt.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright hinted at canceling certain loans in a recent interview with the Washington Free Beacon, saying the Trump administration is focused on funding that will “make life for the American people better.”
As the Free Beacon reported last year, Shah has maintained a relationship with battery company Plug Power since before he joined the Biden administration. He gave Plug Power $100 million in debt financing through Generate Capital, an investment firm he founded, in 2019. During the final week of Biden’s presidency, Shah’s office in the Department of Energy approved a controversial $1.6 billion federal loan for Plug Power.
In March, Plug Power announced layoffs of over 200 of its workers in New York, blaming the downsizing on “economic” concerns.
Though the Bloomberg report did not mention any companies by name, Plug Power leaders have indicated that their company will pivot to the European market. Chief Executive Officer Andy Marsh said in an earnings call on Tuesday that “uncertainty about clean energy programs” under President Donald Trump has turned Europe into “one of the most exciting strategic frontiers” for green corporations.
Listing the E.U. Green Deal and the U.K. Energy Act among other green energy funding projects, Marsh said Europe is now home to an “opportunity funnel worth over $21 billion.”
Despite his confidence, Marsh said Plug Power is still working to collect the $1.6 billion loan guarantee it received from the Department of Energy.
Plug Power is just one of many companies that received federal energy loans totaling billions of dollars in the final months of the Biden administration and now face massive financial problems. Li-Cycle, a battery company that received a $375 million loan in November 2024, suspended its operations earlier in May. Sunnova, a solar panel company approved for a $3 billion loan guarantee, is reportedly on the verge of bankruptcy.
