Nordic was offered $16m to make improvements to an assembly plant in Pocatello, Idaho. Beacon Power’s loan guarantee is for $43m to build a 20MW flywheel energy storage plant in Stephenton, New York. The company is based in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts.

The loan guarantee programme (LGP) was first authorized in 2005, but sat essentially idle until March of this year, when DOE extended a $535m conditional guarantee to Solyndra for a rooftop solar factory in California.