The federal Loan Program Office, within the Department of Energy, exists to help finance pioneering companies that can't yet draw hefty private capital. After a political upset sent the office into deep freeze, it revived in the past several years. Now, a new director with a reputation as an investor...

When you fiddle with spreadsheet cells or engineering models all day in pursuit of clean energy, the sound of stasis can clang in your ears. So after local and national politicians blamed wind turbines for a power outage that interrupted water supplies and left people freezing for days across the...