Nordic Windpower of Kansas City, Missouri, a closely held maker of wind turbines, is seeking a $16 million loan guarantee. Abengoa Bioenergy Biomass of Kansas LLC, a unit of Seville, Spain-based Abengoa SA, and Poet LLC of Sioux Falls, South Dakota are seeking aid to build the first U.S. plants to produce ethanol using non-food feedstocks, such as corn cobs and switch grass.

Ormat Technologies Inc. of Reno, Nevada, is awaiting a $350 million loan guarantee to build geothermal power stations that can convert heat into electricity in Nevada. Chief Executive Officer Dita Bronicki said she doesn't expect the uproar over Solyndra to derail Ormat's application.

"It's hard to predict political fallout," Bronicki said in an interview. "We are quite confident that we will close before Sept. 30."

Ormat Technologies is a unit of Yavne, Israel-based Ormat Industries Ltd. Foreign-owned companies are eligible for loans if their projects are located in the U.S., according to the Energy Department's website.

'Moving Along Well'

"We're fairly confident that our process is moving along very well," Jeff Broin, CEO of Poet, said in an interview. "It's expected that some project will fail. That's why a loan guarantee program does exist in the first place."

The Energy Department has provided about $9.6 billion in loan guarantees to 18 developers and manufacturers since 2009.

Since Solyndra said on Aug. 31 that it intended to file for bankruptcy protection, the Energy Department has closed a $1.2 billion loan guarantee for Abengoa to build a solar-thermal power plant in California; a $90.6 million loan guarantee for Cogentrix Energy LLC, a unit of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., to build a solar manufacturing plant in Colorado; a $150 million loan guarantee to 1366 Technologies Inc., a maker of silicon wafers for solar cells; and a partial guarantee of a $344 million loan to SolarCity Corp., a closely held installer and owner of rooftop power systems.

Democrats led by Representative Henry Waxman of California said Republicans were using Solyndra to taint other clean-energy projects.

'Science Denier'

"The majority of Republicans on this committee deny that climate change is real," Waxman said at last week's hearing. "If you are a science denier, there is no reason for government to invest in clean energy."