And another 2 Billion in our tax money thrown away....
 

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/worlds...les-bankruptcy

Central planning by governments works out great once again....

"World's Largest Solar Plant, With Second Largest Ever Department of Energy Loan Guarantee, Files For Bankruptcy


Solyndra was just the appetizer. Earlier today, in what will come as a surprise only to members of the administration, the company which proudly held the rights to the world's largest solar power project, the hilariously named Solar Trust of America ("STA"), filed for bankruptcy. And while one could say that the company's epic collapse is more a function of alternative energy politics in Germany, where its 70% parent Solar Millennium AG filed for bankruptcy last December, what is relevant is that last April STA was the proud recipient of a $2.1 billion conditional loan from the Department of Energy, incidentally the second largest loan ever handed out by the DOE's Stephen Chu. That amount was supposed to fund the expansion of the company's 1000 MW Blythe Solar Power Project in Riverside, California. From the funding press release, "This project construction is expected to create over 1,000 direct jobs in Southern California, 7,500 indirect jobs in related industries throughout the United States, and more than 200 long-term operational jobs at the facility itself. It will play a key role in stimulating the American economy,? said Uwe T. Schmidt, Chairman and CEO of Solar Trust of America and Executive Chairman of project development subsidiary Solar Millennium, LLC." Instead, what Solar Trust will do is create lots of billable hours for bankruptcy attorneys (at $1,000/hour), and a good old equity extraction for the $22 million DIP lender, which just happens to be NextEra Energy Resources, LLC, another "alternative energy" company which last year received a $935 million loan courtesy of the very same (and now $2.1 billion poorer) Department of Energy, which is also a subsidiary of public NextEra Energy (NEE), in the process ultimately resulting in yet another transfer of taxpayer cash to NEE's private shareholders.

As Bloomberg notes: "The company joins Energy Conversion Devices Inc., a U.S. solar manufacturer that suspended production last year; LSP Energy LP, the owner of a natural-gas-fired power plant in Mississippi; Ener1 Inc., maker of lithium-ion batteries for plug-in electric cars; solar-panel maker Solyndra LLC; and energy storage company Beacon Power Corp. (BCONQ) in bankruptcy."

And so central planning fails again, and again, and again, and again. But it sure will be better with the centrally planned monetary (and in the absence of a working Congress - also fiscal) policy. Because this time it really will be different.

From Reuters:

Solar Trust of America and several affiliates filed for protection from creditors with the U.S. bankruptcy court in Delaware. It estimated to have as much as $10 million of assets, and between $50 million and $100 million of liabilities.



Blythe is about 220 miles (354 km) southeast of Los Angeles.



"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. "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."

At least someone's reputation will be tarnished as a result of this latest epic failure of the Obama administration to misallocate capital :

Solar Millennium said it has been sued by former Chief Executive Utz Claassen over public statements by company representatives that he claims have damaged his reputation and left him unable to find a job. Solar Millennium said the lawsuit would not directly affect its insolvency proceedings.

Cliff notes?
j/k :upsidedow

So this time the administration wasn't told that the company was going bankrupt before they gave the donors, er I mean corporate officers, our money to walk away with? The administration most certainly wasn't surprised by Solyndra - they were told over and over that Solyndra couldn't survive, that giving them your money only meant that the big wigs at Solyndra could walk away with our cash when they shut it down.

The government squandered your tax dollars on another feel good energy crapshoot that no one expected would work.

.

Dude donates to Obama. Obama gives him $2 billion of your money. Dude shuts down and goes back home to Germany.

Even though j/k it was still worth it.


http://specfriggintacular.files.word...scorecard1.jpg

The failure of US made solar products is a direct result illegal government subsidies in the tens of billions by China. It has nothing to do with labor costs as solar manufacturing is highly automated everywhere.

China will win world war III without firing a shot.

It's better to keep giving it to companies that profit so much that they can't possibly fail.
Or something like that.

Obama's Enron.

But don't worry, once Obama's president it's all gonna change and be a lot better

:2 cents::2 cents:

.

Let's not let logic get in the way of our Obama bashing.

Solar Panels from China are even less expensive now then they were six months ago. What would of cost 5 to 6K$ is now worth less then 3K$.

What is stunning is how ever since the 70's people have said solar can never work and so forth. Same arguments used then are used today, meanwhile countries all over the globe are saving big bucks using solar.
Just keep giving the billions to oil companies. They'll never fail.

So pointing out severe corruption is now illogical * bashing?

Let's summarize this:
Obama gets tons of money from Solyndra and its advisors at Goldman Sachs.
Solyndra then gets millions in loans from the government.
Solyndra gets more loans from the government when it's clear Solyndra can't pay back the original loans.
Solyndra announces that it's opening a plant in Mexico instead of California.
3 weeks later Solyndra gets even more loans from the government.
The government gives up its first lien and gives Solyndra another loan.
....

Don't see anything fishy going on?

the failure was hiring Utz Classen - he has a pretty shitty reputation in Germany

but solar is a failure anyways - it only makes sense for generating electricity in deserted places, not as mass supply

i am all for green energy, but not this one

Blame Bush?

Solar is better small scale for each home and to feed back to the cloud.

Which countries are those?

Spain is the world leader. Just the other day I read an article about the largest solar company in the world and they were still talking about needing 10-15 years to turn profit.

I don't think anybody is saving big bucks. It's mostly subsidized right now. Certainly has the potential to save/make big money, but I don't see that happening with government involvement. We need the greed of business to make it work.

Solar panels work great for heating swimming pools in sunny climates. What they will do on a roof in Chicago on a cloudy day in January I have no idea.

.

what Sly said

Ever since the 70s people have been saying solar is all that and through our taxes being passed to solar companies we've each been forced to spend tens of thousands of dollars on solar, but forty years later it's still only useful in situations where you can't run a regular power line.

Solar IS useful - for running a weather station in death valley where there are no power lines. If it was capable of providing mass electricity, shouldn't we be seeing some of that after forty years and hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies?

Solyndra and all of these other scams aren't about solar power. They knew before they got the money, and the government was told, that they would be shutting down their attempt to make solar systems. There is memo after memo stating clearly that the companies were closing their doors. Tne Obama administration just asked Solyndra to keep the layoffs secret until the day after the 2010 election. It was all about giving your money to Obama donors.

Our government blows money in ways we could not begin to imagine. Rolling Stones last year did a story about two women who got millions of dollars in loans from the government - that didn't need to get paid back.

One of the stimulus packages sent nearly a billion dollars down to the Philippines to compensate the families of filipinos that fought for the US during WWII.

The US Government burns money... .

Oh come on. We all know that solar and wind etc got VIRTUALLY zero dollars compared to massive billions to oil companies who do not need them. They do NOT NEED THEM, lmao. Yet they are entitled to them it seems. Thats right, rich oil companies have the most expensive welfare entitlement program in the US government and everyone knows it and bows down to kiss their ass.

Your argument is that we should waste a few billion dollars on solar (which clearly doesn't work) because we are giving oil companies billions/trillions of dollars as well?

Of course it takes many years to break even and profit. Whats the timeline to break even and profit from burning fossil fuels again?

You said many countries were saving big bucks. I'm saying, which ones?

No, my argument with the thread is that it's right wing political agenda time once again on GFY when there are much larger more wasteful and delicious fish to fry.

Don't punish Paul because Peter is a bigger bully.

My parents at their home in Florida bought a solar setup to heat their pool.
It's saving them quite a bit on their monthly electric bill not running the pool pump.
But I think they paid like 7k for it so it's going to take a while to make that up.

Any country that is offsetting fossil fuel with solar, wind or geothermal is profitting from it in some way. Even Germany where it's considered a "fail" based on expenses, it's providing a small percent of power. Like 1 percent or less.
That's when measured today as if it's never going to change of course. It's versus todays rates on everything else, and based on a fewer number of years of savings compared to when it's compared again in 10 yrs, 20, 50 and so forth. It takes a longer look to see the value.

You are obviously not in the green tech industry.

Explain to me how much solar energy is being made at home in Germany - the sunbelt of the EU?

You are so uninformed it is not funny.

Sly, I'm not saying dont disparage solar power ever and amen. I'm saying if you want to talk about wasting billions of dollars, how about addressing the biggest wastes of money rather than the just-so-happens to be a politically motivated one. It's clear.

btw - giving oil companies 4 billion in tax cuts and not having the balls to take them away while they make record profits is equally retarded

does anyone see a connection between the record profits and the "high" gas prices?

(considering that "high" means still one of the lowest gas prices of all developed countries)

You can look it up. Germany's solar is providing something less than 1% of it's electricity today.

I think some of your keyboard warriors need to get off your asses and speak to real experts and engineers.

i did some research like 10 years ago when i was writing at the university about green energy. at least at that time, the energy you needed to produce a solar cell was higher than the total output over its lifespan.

maybe that got better, but there are still a lot of better opportunities

Right. What happened to going after LOW hanging fruit? There's no question in anyone of any politcal bent that wasting money on a failed company was a bad move. But how about some equal vigor to address massive giveaways to the most profitable companies of all time, literally? It seems there's a deafness or fear factor there.

Again you are misinformed.

Is electricity the only form of energy use?

I am already doing that in one house and designing as we speak system number 2.

Most EFFECTIVE solar use I have found is venting my attics with solar fans with battery backups and then switching to AC power on days of repeated low solar capture. :thumbsup

anything you researched 2 years ago is basically worthless in regard to ROI.