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Getbig Main Boards => Politics and Political Issues Board => Topic started by: Soul Crusher on April 02, 2012, 01:26:34 PM
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Solar Trust seeks bankruptcy protection in Del.
By RANDALL CHASE, AP Business Writer – 4 hours ago
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hCu2RAChJBQclFJD-5oirs0GfrHw?docId=50f3ec47e91e42f686d18806c43f485a
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — A California solar energy company that was unable to meet a deadline for an Energy Department loan guarantee last year has sought bankruptcy protection in Delaware.
Solar Trust of America's Chapter 11 filing on Monday listed assets between $1 million and $10 million, and liabilities between $10 million and $50 million.
The filing comes amid the ongoing controversy surrounding Solyndra, a solar firm that received a half-billion dollar federal loan and was touted by the Obama administration before declaring bankruptcy last year.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and California Gov. Jerry Brown were on hand last June when Solar Trust broke ground on a 1,000-megawatt project in California. The project was touted as the world's largest solar power plant and a keystone of the Obama administration's efforts to promote solar energy.
Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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Another Gov’t-Backed Clean Energy Co. Touted by Obama Admin Goes Bankrupt
The Blaze ^ | 4/2/12 | Becket Adams
A California solar energy company that was unable to meet a deadline for an Energy Department loan guarantee last year has sought bankruptcy protection in Delaware.
“Solar Trust of America LLC…holds the development rights for the world’s largest solar power project,” Reuters reports, “which last April won $2.1 billion of conditional loan guarantees from the U.S. Department of Energy. It is unclear how the bankruptcy will affect that project [emphasis added].”
Solar Trust of America’s Chapter 11 filing on Monday listed assets between $1 million and $10 million, and liabilities between $10 million and $50 million.
“We have been working with Solar Trust of America for a couple of years in getting this project going,” David Lane, Blythe’s city manager, said in an interview with Reuters. ”Although the project is not in the city limits, we are the only city within 100 miles. My sense is that with the large investment in what was to have been the world’s largest solar power plant, someone somewhere will buy it and build it.”
The company said it “ran short of liquidity” after Solar Millennium AG, which holds a 70 percent stake, sought court protection in December, according to Reuters.
(Excerpt) Read more at theblaze.com ...
SOLYNDRABAMA AT IT AGAIN!
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Solar company bankrupt despite 'win-win' DOE loan
by Joel Gehrke Commentary Staff Writer
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Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Gov. Jerry Brown, D-Calif., at the the Blythe solar project groundbreaking / White HouseIn keeping with the recent trend of so-called green companies going into the red, another solar energy company supported by President Obama's top administration officials declared bankruptcy today.
Solar Trust for America received $2.1 billion in conditional loan guarantees from the Department of Energy -- "the largest amount ever offered to a solar project," according to Energy Secretary Steven Chu -- for a project near Blythe, Calif., but declared bankruptcy within a year. It is unclear how much of the guarantee, if any, was actually awarded.
Senior officials in Obama's administration had very high hopes for the Blythe project. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar attended the groundbreaking ceremony, which he described as "a historic moment in America’s new energy frontier" and "another important step in making America’s clean energy future a reality." Chu trumpeted at the time that Solar Trust would prove that "when we rev up the great American innovation machine, we can out-compete any other nation."
The embarrassment should be bipartisan. "This is a huge milestone for our community," Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., said when the company received its loan guarantee. "I look forward to continuing my work supporting projects . . . that will harness our local energy resources and help reduce our nation’s dangerous dependence on unstable foreign oil.”
Uwe Schmidt, chairman and CEO of the company, also argued that Solar Trust was good for the nation. He wrote last year that "the DOE loan guarantee is a 'win-win' for government and the companies involved and will not only advance the cause of energy independence but will create hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country."
The bankruptcy makes Schmidt's attempt to rebuke DOE critics in the wake of the Solyndra bankruptcy particuarly ironic.
"Despite the posturing and finger pointing, the American solar energy industry is alive and well," Schmidt wrote in an op-ed for the Huffington Post, before discussing his company's business plans. Referring to Solyndra, he lamented that "one company's bankruptcy has cast doubt on the credibility of a government program that is otherwise being administered with incredible efficiency."
The list of bankrupt solar companies has grown since Schmidt scolded Solyndra investigators. How many more might go bankrupt? Secretary Chu won't say.
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