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    Montana Renewables Finally Receives $782M First Tranche of Delayed DOE Loan to Fund Sustainable Aviation Fuel Project

    Feb. 20, 2025
    The money is part of a $1.44 billion DOE Loan Programs Office guaranteed loan facility. Once President Trump released an executive order promising to freeze renewable energy funding decisions, DOE opted to briefly delay the first tranche of that loan facility while awaiting clarity on the order.
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    A Montana sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production expansion project is now moving forward after a brief delay in financing due to President Trump’s freeze of renewable energy projects under the Biden Administration.

    Montana Renewables has received the first drawdown of approximately $782 million in U.S. Department of Energy funds toward construction on expanding its SAF project in Great Falls. The money is part of a $1.44 billion DOE Loan Programs Office guaranteed loan facility which closed last month in the last days of the Biden Administration.

    Once President Trump released an executive order promising to freeze renewable energy funding decisions, DOE opted to briefly delay the first tranche of that loan facility while awaiting clarity on the order.

    The expansion will help Montana Renewables LLC (MRL) produce approximately 300 million gallons of SAF and 330 million gallons of combined SAF and renewable diesel (RD), mainly from farming waste. The planned expansion includes several key modular components, which will provide the ability to increase capacity and reduce costs. A second renewable fuels reactor will allow approximately half of the 300-million-gallon SAF capability to be online by 2026.

    "Over the past three years DOE's Loan Programs Office conducted a rigorous due diligence process supported by experts in technology, markets, law, underwriting, and risk, and MRL qualified on the merits,” Montana Renewable CEO Bruce Fleming said in a statement. “The incoming administration took time to verify this and we appreciate the office's thoroughness. Today we are pleased to continue leading Montana's largest biofuels investment and look forward to our continued collaboration with the LPO on the success of this project."

    With the first tranche funding, Indiana-based parent company Calumet also made an additional $150 million equity investment with cash on hand.

    The balance of the guaranteed loan proceeds of up to approximately $658 million is expected to be disbursed through a delayed draw construction facility. Montana Renewables expects the second tranche to be disbursed during construction beginning in 2025, through the anticipated completion of the project in 2028.

    The loan has a 15-year span and an annual interest rate at the U.S. Treasury rate plus 3/8 percent. Servicing of principal and interest will be deferred until the MaxSAF project is commissioned.

    MRL expects the expansion to catalyze additional regional development, especially for renewable feedstocks from farms and ranches. MRL will create an SAF industry including public and private partners in Montana and the Pacific Northwest by driving local infrastructure development in transportation, agricultural and energy related businesses similar to the Minnesota SAF Hub.

    Aviation biofuel possesses the same energy densities and can used a drop-in to conventional jet fuel.

     

    About the Author

    Rod Walton, EnergyTech Managing Editor | Senior Editor

    For EnergyTech editorial inquiries, please contact Managing Editor Rod Walton at [email protected].

    Rod Walton has spent 15 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist. He formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

    Walton earned his Bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. His career stops include the Moore American, Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Wagoner Tribune and Tulsa World. 

    EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids. The C&I sectors together account for close to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

    He was named Managing Editor for Microgrid Knowledge and EnergyTech starting July 1, 2023

    Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.

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