sunnova energy international inc said it received a conditional commitment from the us department of energy to provide an upto3 billion partial loan guarantee to support its project hestia a program to further expand reliable clean and affordable energy services to underserved american communities project hestia would provide disadvantaged individuals and communities with increased access to sunnova services by indirectly and partially guaranteeing the cash flows associated with those consumers loans to be eligible each energy system must be outfitted with sunnovas purposebuilt technology accessible by smart phone or other personal electronic device the technology is designed to improve customer insights regarding their power usage and will facilitate demand response behavior sunnova says the approach is expected to expand access to its eaas offerings lay the foundation for future virtual power plant activities decrease greenhouse gas emissions and increase the demand response impact of residential power systems the doe financing would accelerate the adoption of solar and storage decrease greenhouse gas emissions and expand the availability of reliable clean and affordable energy to those communities who benefit the most from lowcost energy said william j john berger ceo of sunnova if issued the doe loan guarantee would support the origination of loans associated with solar storage or other sunnova adaptive home technologies that utilize sunnovas purposebuilt demand response and vpp enabling software sunnova anticipates the doe loan guarantee will support up to 4 billion to 5 billion in sunnova loan originations reduce the companys weighted average cost of capital and generate interest savings sunnova said several steps remain for project hestia to reach critical milestones and certain conditions must be satisfied before the doe loan guarantee is issued including completion of definitive financing documents