WASHINGTON — The Obama administration’s energy chief, facing increased pressure over the failure of solar-panel maker Solyndra, defended on Saturday a loan-guarantee program that has provided billions of dollars for solar energy and other renewable-energy projects.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu said a stimulus program that expired Friday will help develop the world’s largest wind farm in Oregon, several large solar power farms in California and Nevada, and the installation of solar panels on 750 rooftops in 28 states, among other projects.
The loan program has become a rallying cry for critics of the Obama administration’s green- energy program after a California solar-panel maker declared bankruptcy despite receiving a $528 million federal loan. The company, Solyndra LLC, has laid off its 1,100 workers.
Chu did not mention Solyndra in a speech at a Solar Decathlon sponsored by the Energy Department.
Students competed to build model solar homes in the event, which was won by the University of Maryland.
But Chu said loan-guarantee projects will generate clean energy to power more than 2.5 million homes.
Combined with other programs run by the department, the clean-energy loans are expected to support as many as 60,000 jobs, he said, though Republican lawmakers have disputed that figure.
Damien LaVera, a department spokesman, said the clean-energy loan program has awarded 28 loans worth more than $16 billion since 2009.
Much of the spending has come recently, including more than $6 billion in the past week alone for seven separate projects.
Chu said the U.S. can’t afford not to invest in clean energy.
“It’s not enough for our country to invent clean-energy technologies; we have to make them and use them too,” he said. “Invented in America, made in America and sold around the world. That’s how we’ll create good jobs and lead in the 21st century.”
On Friday, the Justice Department moved to take control of Solyndra, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in early September.
