Another DOE-Backed Solar Company Goes Bankrupt

Heritage ^ | October 18, 2012 | Lachlan Markay

[Snuph]

A solar company that got a multi-million-dollar grant from the Department of Energy earlier this year announced Wednesday that it will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, making it the second taxpayer-backed green energy company to file for bankruptcy this week. Satcon Technology Corp. announced the decision in a Wednesday news release. “This has been a difficult time for Satcon,” president and CEO Steve Rhoades said. “After careful consideration of available alternatives, the Company’s Board of Directors determined that the Chapter 11 filings were a necessary and prudent step, allowing the Company to continue to operate while giving us the opportunity to reorganize with a stronger balance sheet and capital structure.” Satcon received a $3 million DOE grant in January to develop “a compact, lightweight power conversion device that is capable of taking utility-scale solar power and outputting it directly into the electric utility grid at distribution voltage levels—eliminating the need for large transformers.” “If successful,” noted DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA-E) at the time, “Satcon would simplify the solar power conversion process and significantly reduce the cost of operating, installing, and siting a PV power system—helping to facilitate their widespread use.” ARPA-E also stated that the grant “could create jobs for system installers, technicians, and salespeople.” Satcon has also received smaller federal payments for various solar initiatives at DOE. The company manufactures power conversion devices for solar energy, though it does not manufacture the solar panels themselves.

[Snuph]

I recently learned the "solar" industry expects 180 solar companies to go bankrupt worldwide in the next 18 months. My question is if there were so many of these companies why does the US taxpayer need to make more?

[spokeshave]

....because the company executives give big bucks to Obama re-election campaign.

[Carriage Hill]

Complete List of President Obama’s Taxpayer-Backed Green Energy Failures
(as of Thursday, October 18th, 2012)

Evergreen Solar ($24 million)*
SpectraWatt ($500,000)*
Solyndra ($535 million)*
Beacon Power ($69 million)*
AES’s subsidiary Eastern Energy ($17.1 million)
Nevada Geothermal ($98.5 million)
SunPower ($1.5 billion)
First Solar ($1.46 billion)
Babcock and Brown ($178 million)
EnerDel’s subsidiary Ener1 ($118.5 million)*
Amonix ($5.9 million)
National Renewable Energy Lab ($200 million)
Fisker Automotive ($528 million)
Abound Solar ($374 million)*
A123 Systems ($279 million)*
Willard and Kelsey Solar Group ($6 million)
Johnson Controls ($299 million)
Schneider Electric ($86 million)
Brightsource ($1.6 billion)
ECOtality ($126.2 million)
Raser Technologies ($33 million)*
Energy Conversion Devices ($13.3 million)*
Mountain Plaza, Inc. ($2 million)*
Olsen’s Crop Service and Olsen’s Mills Acquisition Company ($10 million)*
Range Fuels ($80 million)*
Thompson River Power ($6.4 million)*
Stirling Energy Systems ($7 million)*
LSP Energy ($2.1 billion)*
UniSolar ($100 million)*
Azure Dynamics ($120 million)*
GreenVolts ($500,000)
Vestas ($50 million)
LG Chem’s subsidiary Compact Power ($150 million)
Nordic Windpower ($16 million)*
Navistar ($10 million)
Satcon ($3 million)*

*Denotes companies that have filed for bankruptcy.

http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/General+News/141778/Complete-List-of-President-Obama’s-Taxpayer-Backed-Green-Energy-Failures.html

[NormsRevenge]

The DoE sure can pick ‘em. Losers, that is.

[TurboZamboni]

IIRC, 80% of those CEO’s of those bankrupt companies we/are also Obama donors.

[chimera]

We shouldn't. This trend of bankruptcies simply confirms that this funding is nothing more than political payoffs, because anyone with any real knowledge of the subject knows that the failures are simply a result of the laws of nature. The economics of solar and wind energy are challenging because the primary energy source is diffuse and/or unpredictable. That means you first have to work that much harder to gather it in sufficient quantities to be economically competitive with more intense source, and you have to allow for extensive and costly backup systems to compensate for the unpredictability. The laws of physics are not suggestions. They are what they are, and no amount of throwing money at them will change that, nor will legislation, sloganeering, or protests in the streets.

[exit82]

Most solar companies will cease to exist in 2016, when solar energy tax subsidies are ended.

The economic model for solar is unsustainable. What a hoot that the greenies refer to it, and wind, as sustainable power sources.

[Carriage Hill]

Might even be higher than 80% of 0bummer’s bundlers/cronies/crooks/scumbag buddies; just guessing...

[traditional1]

The laws of physics, COUPLED with the laws of economics; i.e., if it were a profitable pursuit, there would not need to be a subsidy to get it going, as investors would put up the money. The ONLY way these boondoggles are started is with TAXPAYERS’ monies, now Grants/Loans/Guarantees, and forever as Subsidies. THEY ARE NOT ECONOMIC, NOR ARE THEY DESIRABLE TO THE NEIGHBORS.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

How much was contributed by this company to “The Divine One’s” campaign?