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Tuesday, April 03, 2012

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 [13]("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 [14]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 [15]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.

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8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just another Obama administration bone headed failure. The taxpayer is screwed again.

Anonymous said...

If our government would stop handing out billions of OUR dollar$ to every Tom, Dick & Harry company that wants a hank out may be we'd have money to actually create JOBS for our own citizens. More wasteful spending. I'm so sick of it.

Anonymous said...

we can't possibly stand 4 more years of the air-head prez. get him out soon.

Anonymous said...

omg...Why isn't this placard all over the news. Everytime you turn around, another solar company is in the tank along with millions and now billions of our taxes. I really think there is more going on here than flushing money down the toilet. Just wait and see...if they keep this up, all of us will wake up one day to a different way of life. The writings on the wall.

Anonymous said...

Just another exercise in using public money to pay a hand full of people to go through an exercise that nobody truly believed would be successful.

Anonymous said...

How about you show the list of all the oil firms that have collapsed and reemerged to make the US one of the biggest oil producing companies following billions in gov. subsidies.

Anonymous said...

These loans are direct paybacks for the votes for obamacare.Do you think for one minute that politicians would risk their popularity without assurances of large amounts of compensation?

Anonymous said...

obama; the gift that just keeps on giving...isn't he special.