Solyndra's Whorehouse Lender (Follow the Money)

Areva to Buy Solar Thermal Startup Ausra
By Katie Fehrenbacher Feb. 8, 2010

French power giant Areva says it’s agreed to buy solar thermal startup Ausra. Back in November there were several media reports that said Ausra was in talks to be acquired by one of three companies, and it looks like Areva won the deal. Terms of the acquisition weren’t disclosed.

Areva, which has a large nuclear portfolio, says it will use the Ausra acquisition to become “the world leader in concentrated solar power,” and will sell solar thermal tech to utilities and independent power producers. Solar thermal technology uses mirrors and lenses to concentrate the sun rays to power turbines, and utilities have been turning to it in droves as of late.

During 2009 Ausra changed its strategy from looking to build and operate its own solar thermal power plants to providing its equipment to solar power producers. Building and operating these solar power plants would have taken a ton of financing, which, in a hard economy, would have proven to be a difficult route. Proof of that came at the end of last year when Ausra announced that it will sell its Carrizo Energy Solar Farm Project, a proposed 177MW project still under development in San Luis Obispo, Calif., to industry thin-film solar giant First Solar. And in September Ausra said it had been chosen to provide its equipment for a 100MW concentrated solar thermal power project being developed in Ma’an, Jordan.

When Ausra’s acquisition talks emerged in the media, Katherine Potter, its VP of communications, told us: “As our recent string of announcements have shown, our business strategy of focusing on being a solar steam systems provider is working and producing results.”

Ausra’s investors include KLEINER PERKINS, KHOSLA VENTURES, Al GORE’s GENERATION INVESTMENT, Alberta, Canada-based KERN Partners and Melbourne, Australia-based STARFISH VENTURES. The 4-year-old company has raised around $130 million to date. I’ll do more digging, but I think this is the first (or one of the first) exits for Kleiner Perkins in the cleantech market.

Areva will have to compete in an increasingly crowded market including eSolar, BrightSource, Infinia (which is raising $75 million) and Stirling Energy. The acquisition is expected to close in the next couple of months and is subject to regulatory approval.
http://gigaom.com/cleantech/areva-to-buy-solar-thermal-startup-ausra/

Ausra was founded in 2006 and sold to AREVA for around $400 million. AREVA was granted a conditional guaranteed loan for $2 billion on May 10, 2010. No surprise that Khosla brought in Tony Blair. Blackrock is somehow in the middle of it though haven’t seen their name crop up - yet.

Kleiner-Perkins-Caufield-Byers:
http://www.muckety.com/Kleiner-Perkins-Caufield-Byers/5001073.muckety

AREVA lobbying:
http://www.implu.com/lobby_client/13125

Areva Capital Increase Approved
Published Friday, December 24, 2010

Shareholders in the French nuclear energy group Areva have approved a €900-million ($1.2-billion) capital increase, the company said in a statement. (around the same amount the DOE handed to them in May 2010.)

The increase, approved on Thursday, includes a €600-million investment by the Kuwait Investment Authority.

The Kuwaiti sovereign fund will acquire a 4.8 per cent stake in Areva, becoming the company’s third largest shareholder, after the French atomic energy agency and the government.

STANDARD AND POOR’s warned earlier this month that it would likely downgrade France’s state-owned nuclear services group as the €900 million in fresh capital was significantly less than it had expected.

However, the French government has said that Areva’s sale of non-strategic assets had, along with the capital increase, raised €6.3 billion in funds to invest in the company’s development.
http://www.emirates247.com/business/corporate/areva-capital-increase-approved-2010-12-24-1.333477

Europe is broke because of these crooks and liars, and as we’re probably the only country left to have a few dollars of our own, ie, pensions and 401k’s. they won’t rest until they get their hands on it.

The talks between AREVA and Ausra began in November 2009. November 2009 Jonathan Silver was appointed to head up the Department of Energy’s loan guarantee program. Febuary 2010 they closed the deal. May 2010 they (AREVA) got a $2 billion deal. A coincidence?

“Jonathon Silver was an adviser to the secretaries of Commerce, Interior and Treasury under president Bill Clinton. Silver started his career at consulting firm McKinsey, which also produced DOE senior adviser Matt Rogers... Check out another partner at Core - Wheeler, fundraiser for Obama and follow an investment sourcefire”:
http://www.muckety.com/Jonathan-Silver/13148.muckety

Some of the DOE Staff:

Steve Isakowitz current relationships:

U.S. Department of Energy - chief financial officer

Steve Isakowitz past relationships:
Booz Allen Hamilton - senior consultant
Central Intelligence Agency - senior intelligence officer
Lockheed Martin Corporation - corporate manager
National Aeronautics and Space Administration - deputy chief financial officer
U.S. Office of Management and Budget - policy analyst
http://www.muckety.com/Steve-Isakowitz/164049.muckety

Steven E. Koonin current relationships:

Barack Obama administration - Energy under secretary

U.S. Department of Energy - under secretary of science

Steven E. Koonin past relationships:
BP Amoco, p.l.c. - senior scientist
California Institute of Technology - provost
Council on Foreign Relations - member
http://www.muckety.com/Steven-E-Koonin/166351.muckety

Daniel B. Poneman current relationships:

Barack Obama administration - deputy secretary of Energy

U.S. Department of Energy - deputy secretary

Daniel B. Poneman past relationships:
Aspen Strategy Group - member
Hogan & Hartson – partner (Sandy Berger heads or headed the International Division)
National Security Council - nonproliferation expert
Scowcroft Group – principal
http://www.muckety.com/Daniel-B-Poneman/165627.muckety
http://www.muckety.com/Scowcroft-Group/5015761.muckety

Catherine Radford Zoi current relationships:

Barack Obama administration - assistant energy secretary

U.S. Department of Energy - assistant secretary for energy efficiency

Catherine Radford Zoi past relationships:
William J. Clinton administration - White House environmental adviser
http://www.muckety.com/Catherine-Radford-Zoi/104370.muckety
http://www.demconwatchblog.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=326

Cathy Zoi is a Managing Director at Silver Lake Kraftwerk, Silver Lake’s investment strategy focused on providing capital to business innovators in the energy and resource sectors. Ms. Zoi has over two decades of experience in energy policy, energy-focused private organizations and serving on boards and advisory committees in the clean technology sector. Ms. Zoi was Acting Under Secretary for Energy and Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy; founding CEO of Vice President Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection; Chief of Staff in the White House Office on Environmental Policy in the Clinton administration; and a manager at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where she pioneered the Energy Star Program.
http://event.gigaom.com/greennet/speakers/#cathy_zoi

Solyndra et al reference bump! ;-)

Solyndra files for insolvency in Switzerland & Germany
Solyndra LLC announced on August 31, 2011 to suspend its manufacturing operations.
With the discontinuation of operations and ceasing of business by Solyndra LLC in the United States, Solyndra’s subsidiary, Solyndra International AG in Baar, Switzerland and its subsidiary Solyndra GmbH in Holzkirchen, Germany, NO LONGER HAVE ACCESS TO FUNDING. As a result, Solyndra International AG and Solyndra GmbH have similarly ceased operations and are expected to file for insolvency under the laws of their respective jurisdictions in the coming days.
Read more: http://evertiq.com/news/20385

I wonder what business’ they had over there because I thought the money was to be used here. If it was offices why the need to file for bankrupcy.

Solyndra, Inc. Signs Framework Agreement With Germany’s alwitra GmbH & Co.
Friday, December 4th 2009

Solyndra, Inc., a manufacturer of innovative cylindrical photovoltaic (PV) systems for commercial rooftops, announced it has signed a new long term framework agreement with alwitra GmbH & Co., a leading supplier of well-engineered roofing systems, based in Trier, Germany. The solar panels for this agreement will be manufactured at Solyndra’s facilities in Fremont and Milpitas, CA.

“We are excited to announce this agreement with alwitra, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of innovative roofing systems. With alwitra’s global presence and their award-winning line of highly reflective Evalon roofing membranes, this agreement builds on the benefits of Solyndra PV installations on reflective commercial rooftops and will expand our footprint in the important roofing channel,” says Chris Gronet, Solyndra CEO and founder.
http://www.archithings.com/solyndra-inc-signs-framework-agreement-with-germany%e2%80%99s-alwitra-gmbh-co/2009/12/04

GmbH & Co. is huge, have had loads of experience (and making billions on the energy/climate change scam) over the last decade along with hundreds of other EU companies. They’ve done Europe already, they’re in the ME, Africa, S America, Canada, etc for years (which is why they’re/we’re broke) and now they’re here. So, why would GmbH & Co want to do business with this new, fledgling, inexperienced company, especially considering Pricewaters said months before (before they were approved for the loan), that they were destined to fail. The tax free US government loan appears to have been the only reason. Solyndra got the money in September, and by December they were signing contracts. Did the DOE and the Obama Admin ignore the warnings of failure deliberately? And how much of our money went to this company? It will be interesting to see where the money went but as we’ve been informed already - the records were poorly kept. Not much different than TARP. This global heist, if we survive it, will be in the history books as the greatest scam since - never - though in taken in scale it’s not new. It will surely “level the playing field” and make obama happy.

Foreign energy firms getting windfall of U.S. stimulus funds (Money buying turbines made abroad) February 09, 2010 Of the more than $2 billion the federal government has given out to boost the economy and create green-energy jobs, more than three-quarters has gone to foreign-owned companies that dominate the global wind-power industry. This latest finding by the Investigative Reporting Workshop, a nonprofit at American University in Washington, D.C., is illustrated clearly in San Diego County, where about a dozen commercial wind developers have offices. La Jolla is the headquarters for Eurus Energy America, the subsidiary of a Japanese firm that received $91 million in federal stimulus money for a wind farm in western Texas. It plans to apply for more money to fund a wind project in Oregon. EnXco, a FRENCH-owned firm with American headquarters in Escondido, has received $69.5 million in stimulus money for its wind farm in Indiana. It installed 53 German-made turbines at the site. EnXco also is operating the Texas wind farm for Eurus. A-Power Energy Generation Systems, a CHINESE-owned company that might get federal grants through a consortium building a wind farm in western Texas, lists a vacant office in downtown San Diego as its U.S. address on recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Cannon Power Group of San Diego has received $19 million to expand a wind farm east of Portland in Washington. The company spent about half of that money overseas to pay for wind turbines it said it couldn’t get stateside. The Reporting Workshop’s initial analysis of wind-energy grants was released in October and outraged some lawmakers. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., cited the group’s report — and news that $450 million in stimulus money might go to a group installing Chinese-made wind turbines in Texas — when he asked the secretary of energy to deny federal financing to firms that use foreign-made turbines. American wind companies are receiving stimulus grants, but some such as Cannon Power spend much of that money abroad because few U.S. companies manufacture turbines. Mark Anderson, chief executive officer of Eurus Energy America, a subsidiary of TOKYO-based Eurus Energy Holdings Corp., said his company would not have been able to move forward with other projects without the guarantee of stimulus money. Eurus received $91 million in grants for the Bull Creek Wind Farm in Texas. It has the capacity to power about 48,000 homes a year. Eurus is building a wind farm in Oregon. The company plans to seek green grants for that project, Anderson said. “We plan to put more and more money into the United States,” he said. Eurus employs 20 people in San Diego, Anderson said, and has assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Its Texas project created between 300 and 400 jobs for construction, including 10 for operation, and is benefiting the local economy through property taxes and land leases, Anderson said. For the project, Eurus bought Mitsubishi turbines, which are manufactured abroad. EnXco, the French-owned firm based in Escondido, also went abroad to buy turbines, from GERMAN manufacturer REpower. A spokesman for enXco said the project created more than 200 construction jobs as well as a dozen permanent jobs. It has the capacity to power about 29,000 homes per year. A-Power, based in northeast China, is part of a group building a wind farm in western Texas using turbines it is manufacturing in China. This is the project that affronted Schumer after the group announced plans to collect $450 million in stimulus grants. In a letter, Schumer asked Energy Secretary Steven Chu to reject requests for stimulus grants from companies that buy key components abroad. “In all due respect, I remind the secretary there is a four-letter word associated with the stimulus — J-O-B-S,” Schumer told ABC News. “Very few jobs here, lots of jobs in China. That is not what I intended or any other legislator who voted for the stimulus intended.” Chu responded on Facebook: “But manufacturers will not build plants here and grow their production capacity here unless there is domestic demand; and, until recently, that was not the case.” In SEC filings this year, A-Power Energy Generation Systems LISTS A SUITE IN A HIGH-RISE IN DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO AS IT'S BUILDING AND MAILING ADDRESS. HOWEVER, THE SUITE DOOR IS LOCKED, AND A BUILDING MANAGER SAID A-POWER IS NOT A TENANT. When reached on his cell phone, Chief Operating Officer John Lin said he did not have time to answer questions. Gary Hardke, president of Cannon Power Group, a renewable-energy company near Torrey Pines, said his company had no choice but to go abroad to buy parts for its wind farm in Klickitat, Wash. Two main U.S. manufacturers, GE Energy and Clipper Windpower, either did not make a turbine the size that Cannon wanted or were sold out. Cannon bought the turbines — made up mostly of blades, towers and nacelles (the part in the middle that houses components such as the rotor and generator) — from SIEMANS, a German company that also was the main contractor. In all, Hardke estimated, more than 50 PERCENT OF THE STIMULUS GRANT WENT TO SIEMENS. “I appreciate that cosmetically it doesn’t look good, but the reality is … the grants (must) go into the project costs,” he said. CANNON IS EXPECTING $151 MILLION MORE IN STIMULUS GRANTS to expand the wind farm and hopes all the parts will come from the United States. Hardke pointed to ways the stimulus cash will do what lawmakers intended — boost the local economy. Cannon pays about $3 MILLION A YEAR TO LEASE LAND FROM ABOUT 40 INDIVUALS individual owners as well as $2 million in property taxes... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2447662/posts We're being scammed. Windmill Farms are being built and then just sit there with no maintainence...for all the good they do one can see the logic but building them is illogical unless it's the land that's the motivation. America no longer produces or manufactures and these few jobs, of course, are temporary. Salazar Green-Lights First-Ever Solar Energy Projects on Public Lands 10/05/2010 WASHINGTON, DC – In an historic step forward in the nation’s clean energy future, (CLINTONITE) Secretary of the Interior KEN SALAZAR today approved the first large-scale solar energy plants ever to be built on public lands. The two projects, both located in California, are the first in a series of renewable energy projects on public lands under final review by the Department of the Interior that would provide thousands of U.S. jobs and advance U.S. clean energy technologies. Salazar’s approval grants the U.S.-based companies access to almost 6,800 acres of public lands for 30 years to build and operate solar plants that could produce up to 754 megawatts of renewable energy, or enough to power 226,000 – 566,000 typical American homes. The projects will generate almost 1,000 new jobs... http://www.doi.gov/news/pressreleases/Salazar-Green-Lights-First-Ever-Solar-Energy-Projects-on-Public-Lands.cfm When one strikes off the fact that these wild life agencies have been proven as a farce since the introduction of windmills, which has killed thousands of birds each year, and not a peep out of them about "capitalists" building on "conserved" land for profit. One can also eliminate that Obama cares about American jobs. So what's up with giving them thousands of acres of public land? Are there other resources within those acres that they're more interested in...they've given themselves 30 yrs. These structures are giantic...when they go bust what will the investors use them for...

A-Power Energy Generation Systems - United Steelworkers union President Leo Gerard, front left, poses with leaders of the plan to build a wind farm in West Texas. At center is Jinxiang Lu, chairman and CEO of the Chinese company A-Power Energy Generation Systems, with a leader of the investment group for the project, Cappy McGarr, a wealthy Texas philanthropist, investor and longtime fixture in Democratic politics, who has given heavily to Democratic candidates across the country and was an early backer of President Barack Obama's presidential campaign. The Chinese firm and its American partners, a group of investors known as the U.S. Renewable Energy Group, are hoping to receive money through the U.S Department of Energy. At rear, from left, are three other leaders of the investment group, lobbyist John O'Hanlon, Democratic fundraiser Ed Cunningham, and mostly obscured, lobbyist Moses Boyd.

Just three weeks before Election Day, Senate Majority leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), center, arrives for the dedication of a wind power manufacturing facility in Henderson, Nev., on Oct. 12, 2010. With him are, second from left, Kai Huang, deputy mayor of Shenyang, China; Jinxiang Lu, second from right, chairman and CEO of A-Power Energy Generation Systems, a Chinese company, and Tom Conway, right, international vice president of the United Steelworkers union. Reid's support, and the plan to create jobs in Nevada, helped blunt Congressional criticism that stimulus money was going to the Chinese company, which plans a large wind farm in West Texas, and gave Reid a chance for a photo opportunity during a tight re-election campaign. So far the company has not started employing anyone, or building anything, in Nevada. The company is hoping to receive money through the U.S. Department of Energy.

Powerful Democrats help Chinese energy firm chase stimulus money

By Russ Choma

Thursday, December 9th, 2010

Top Democratic fundraisers and lobbyists with links to the White House are behind a proposed wind farm in Texas that stands to get $450 million in stimulus money, even though a CHINESE company would operate the farm and its turbines would be built in China.

The farm’s backers also have close ties with Senate Majority Leader HARRY REID (D-Nev.), who, at the height of his hard-fought reelection bid this fall, helped blunt Congressional criticism over stimulus dollars possibly going to create jobs in China by endorsing a proposal by the Chinese company to build a factory in his home state. Although HIS CAMPAIGN RECEIVED THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS IN DONATIONS FROM THE WIND FARM BACKERS and Reid stood on stage with them at a campaign event they hosted, his office declined to answer any questions about the wind farm’s organizers or their plans for NEVADA.

The wind farm, first announced more than a year ago, would consist of 300 two-megawatt wind turbines, each one perched atop 26-story-tall steel towers, spinning three blades, each half the length of a football field. The farm would span three counties and 36,000 acres in WEST TEXAS LAND FARM, best known for its oil. Dubbed the SPINNING STAR wind farm, the project’s 600-megawatt capacity is, theoretically, large enough to power 180,000 American homes and would be the sixth-largest wind farm in the country.

It is being planned by an unusual joint partnership between the U.S. RENEWABLE ENERGY GROUP, a Dallas investment firm with strong ties to Washington and the Democratic Party, and A-Power Energy Generation Systems, AN UPSTART CHINESE SUPPLIER OF WIND TURBINES. Filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission indicate the CHINESE ARE BRINGING THE FINANCING AND THE TURBINES.

What the AMERICANS ARE SUPPLYING THE LOCAL KNOW-HOW AND POLITICAL CLOUT in WASHINGTON, WHERE DECISIONS ON HOW TO DISTRIBUTE BILLIONS IN LOAN GUARANTEES, STIMULUS GRANTS, AND FINANCIAL INCENTIVES ARE MADE.

The clock is ticking for Spinning Star: To claim the stimulus grant it must arrange its financing and begin work on the wind farm by Dec. 31. Besides the $450 million stimulus grant, A-Power’s SEC filings indicate the joint-venture will pursue a Department of Energy-backed loan guarantee. According to the SEC filings, the project is waiting to hear if it will receive the loan guarantee before financing will follow to build the turbines.

The investment group’s public face is often CAPPY MCGARR, a wealthy Texas philanthropist, investor and longtime fixture in Democratic politics, who has given heavily to Democratic candidates across the country and was an early backer of President Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. Joining McGarr in Dallas is ED CUNNINGHAM, a former executive for several large Western entertainment companies in China, a 2002 Democratic senatorial candidate and a former member of Obama’s national finance committee.

Two registered lobbyists with a long history of involvement in Democratic politics, G. JOHN O’HANLON AND MOSES BOYD, are the group’s anchors in Washington. O’Hanlon has been a party operative since the 1980s – a protégé of Democratic heavyweight TERRY MCAULIFFE — and has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Democratic causes. Boyd is a former senior Democratic Capitol Hill STAFFER TURNED LOBBYIST.

McGarr married into Democratic Party royalty – his wife’s uncle is legendary Democratic power broker Robert Strauss – and has made his own name as a big-time donor to the party and candidates across the country. McGarr and his wife, Janie Strauss McGarr, have given more than $375,000 to various Democratic candidates and political action committees since 2006, according to Federal Election Commission records. That doesn’t include the $50,000 he DONATED TO PRESIDENT OBAMA’S INAUGURATION and $50,000 to $100,000 in donations from others that he “BUNDLEDbundled” for the Obama campaign.

All told, these four and their spouses have given more than $1.8 million in campaign donations since 1990, with McGarr and his wife accounting for more than half of that.

The money that McGarr “bundled” in the last election — essentially working on a volunteer basis to solicit money for the Obama presidential campaign — is particularly significant, she said. It’s an important and valuable role to play in a campaign, she said, and ONE THAT IS TYPICALLY ACKNOWLEDGED.

“In some cases,” Krumholz said, bundlers, “maybe are just making very little effort and are ideologically driven, BUT in many, many cases, historically, these people are looking for access to tap in on. It should not be presumed that this is uninterested work.”

McGarr’s connections and party loyalty do seem to open doors for him in Washington — and at the White House. MCGARR VISITED THE WHITE HOUSE AT LEAST EIGHT TIMES IN THE ADMINISTRATIONS FIRST 18 months in office, according to visitor records disclosed by the White House. (These disclosures are voluntary, and do not include meetings held with staff outside of the White House or records of telephone contacts, and records that the Obama administration has not released from its first nine months.) Three of the visits were for large social functions hosted by the president, but four were occasions when he met with senior White House staff and presidential advisers.

On SEPT. 15, 2009, just weeks before he announced his new renewable energy venture that would tap Obama’s STIMULUS PLAN, MCGARR MET WITH PETE ROUSE, one of three “senior advisers” to the president. Rouse was named acting chief-of-staff in October 2010 after Rahm Emmanuel announced his departure. Rouse was formerly the chief-of-staff for former Democratic Senate leader TOM DASCHELE. McGarr is the chairman of Daschle’s political action committee.

LIZ OXHORN, a White House spokesperson for the Recovery Act, declined to answer questions about what was discussed during that meeting or any other — including whether Rouse and other White House officials know about the Spinning Star project or were asked to intervene on its behalf.

“Competitive Recovery Act funds are only awarded by experts at federal agencies following an internal merit-based review process,” she said in an e-mail, denying the White House had intervened in the process to award a loan guarantee.

PATRICK DORTON, a spokesperson for US-REG, said neither McGarr nor any other member of the US-REG group ever asked the White House to intervene on behalf of their project.

“US-REG has not asked any official in any branch of government to advocate, on behalf of their project in the DOE loan guarantee process,” Dorton said. “This is a project that stands on its own merits.”

Most of McGarr’s visits were related to his work as executive producer of the Library of Congress’ Gershwin Prize for Popular Music, which honored Stevie Wonder in 2009 and Paul McCartney this past June, Dorton said in an e-mailed statement. Dorton also said a meeting at the White House in January attended by Boyd was for his involvement with a group lobbying for a renewable energy standard — a proposed federal requirement that a certain percentage of electricity come from renewable sources — but NEITHER US-REG nor SPINNING STAR WERE MENTIONED.

According to Dorton’s statement, the four partners in US-REG each brought particular strengths to the deal:

Cunningham has negotiated business deals in China;

McGarr has worked in private equity;

and O’Hanlon and Boyd have experience with green energy.

That all four men are prominent in Washington and Democratic circles has nothing to do with their partnership, Dorton said.

Together, McGarr, Cunningham, O’Hanlon and Boyd will own 51 percent of the Spinning Star wind farm, according to the joint venture agreement filed with the SEC by A-Power. But to earn that ownership stake in a project whose ultimate value is estimated at $2 billion, THEY WON’T HAVE TO CONTRIBUTE ANY SIGNIFICANT FINANCIAL INVESTMENT OF THEIR OWN.

WHAT US-REG MUST DO to earn its “developer fee,” which SEC documents suggest could be worth as much as $244.8 million, is secure “all project rights, beneficial contracts, permits, permit applications and Consultant Information.”

At a press conference held last Oct. 29 to announce the joint venture, the top Chinese A-Power executive made it clear what each company in the deal needed to do to make their new project go forward.

“To go deep and broader in our cooperation in clean energy, SHENYANG POWER GROUP AND US-REG and [construction contractor] CIELO WIND must focus on execution and leveraging our relations with the respective governments of our two great nations,” Jinxiang Lu, A-Power’s CEO, said through a translator at that October 2009 news conference.

Who is A-Power?

A-Power Energy Generation Systems IS A SMALL CHINESE MANUFACTURER, FOUNDED IN 2007 as China’s interest in green energy was beginning to take off. Like many Chinese green-energy equipment manufacturers, A-POWER OBTAINED MUST OF ITS TECHNOLOGY FROM COMPANIES OUTSIDE CHINA — specifically, GERMAN wind turbine company FUHRLANDER AND GENERAL ELECTRIC. But what A-Power lacks in original or cutting-edge technology, it makes up for in the apparent ability to summon the brute force of China’s newly developed manufacturing base.

The company is based in Shenyang Province, a small northeastern province on the border with North Korea that has recently become a hub for Chinese manufacturing. Aside from a handful of deals in Southeast Asia, A-POWER HAS SUPPLIED RELATIVELY FEW TURBINES, BUT claims to have the largest turbine factory in China, poised to build hundreds of turbines a year. (where did they get the money to build it?)

On Sept. 29, a Website owned by A-Power subsidiary published pictures showing a ceremony and parade for what company officials said is the first turbine to be shipped to Texas, BUT in later filings with the SEC, the company said no turbines had been constructed.

Some financing for the project MAY come from the Chinese Export-Import Bank, a Chinese government-backed agency set up to help finance deals that will help promote Beijing’s export policy, according to other press releases on the same company website. BUT according to SEC filings by the company made last week, getting financing for the deal may HINGE ON WHETHER THE Department of Energy is willing to guarantee the loan. US-REG’s spokesman said the project has made it through the first phase of the loan guarantee program, but a Department of Energy spokesperson cautioned that, to date, the administration hasn’t given the project anything.

“The project has not received a single dime of Recovery Act funding,” a Department of Energy statement said. “It has not applied for a tax grant under the 1603 program, has not completed the loan application process and has not been awarded a loan guarantee.”

What has US-REG done?

US-REG’s ability to help its new Chinese partners associate themselves with the Washington power players can be traced through a series of recent deals announced by the two companies in the year since they unveiled plans for the Spinning Star wind farm.

Shortly after that announcement, the proposed project began inciting a kind of populist backlash. Several U.S. senators, led by Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), attacked the proposed plan last November as a misuse of U.S. stimulus dollars. US-REG originally predicted that the Spinning Star wind farm might create as many as 2,800 jobs – but with the vast majority being in China where the turbines would be built. As few as 40 longterm jobs might be created in the U.S., a point that Schumer hammered at.

In NOVEMBER 2009, US-REG and A-Power announced a NEW DEAL, this one apparently carefully crafted to counter the charges that the only thing that working with A-Power would yield was Chinese jobs. A-POWER WOULD BUILD A NEW MANUFACTURING FACILITY — in NEVADA. The new plant would employ 1,000 workers and manufacture turbines for the U.S. market. The factory proposal had virtually no details, such as where it would be, or how A-Power expected to sell turbines in the already competitive U.S. market when they were removing the biggest selling point in their business plan: cheap Chinese labor. BUT it was still heartily endorsed at the time by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Representatives from US-REG and A-Power took pains to praise Reid, who was locked in a tight race to retain his seat, for his foresight and interest in creating green-collar jobs for Nevada. It was a winning situation for everyone involved.

But on MARCH 3, 2010, Schumer and four other Democratic senators produced an amendment to the stimulus package that attempted to apply the law’s Buy American provision to the Section 1603 grant program, which would pay out the $450 million to the Spinning Star wind farm.

Eight days later, on MARCH 11, a news conference was held by the Spinning Star partners, again beating the drum for a new turbine factory in Nevada. Though the new announcement offered few new details, it did have another new partner — the real-estate firm owned by the GREENSPUN FAMILY of LAS VEGAS, who, besides being vocal Harry Reid supporters, also OWN THE LAS VEGAS SUN NEWSPAPER. The newspaper published an op-ed by Brian Greenspun LAUDING REID FOR HIS ROLE in the midsst of a tough election fight to lure his project with such massive job creation potential to Nevada.

On MARCH 18, Moses Boyd wrote a check for $29,940 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. The PAC, controlled by Senate Democratic leadership, has contributed $65,000 to Reid’s campaign since he added his endorsement to the A-Power project. On MARCG 22, Boyd, O’Hanlon and two other members of their lobbying firm gave $4,900 in campaign CONTRIBUTIONS to Reid.

ANOTHER PRESS EVENT promoting the proposed Nevada factory was held in APRIL. This time it was a symbolic ribbon-cutting ceremony. Again, there were no new details, BUT Reid’s endorsement was prominently featured, and Secretary of the Interior KEN SALAZAR appeared at the event. In JUNE, Boyd and two other registered lobbyists at his firm made another $1,400 in DONATIONS to Reid’s campaign.

On OCT. 12, the cooperative relationship between Reid and the Spinning Star wind farm partners culminated with a splashy campaign event for the Senate leader, HOSTED BY CAPPY MCGARR. The event was held at a newly opened LED manufacturing plant in Henderson, Nev., OWNED BY AN UNRELATED COMPANY FROM SINGAPORE, AND which A-Power declared was its new, temporary headquarters. It featured Reid taking the stage between McGarr and A-Power CEO Lu AND A COMMUNIST PARTY OFFICIAL FROM SHENYANG.

Reid’s office declined to answer any questions about A-Power and US-REG despite multiple requests for comment. Dorton, the US-REG spokesman, FLATLY DENIED there was any connection between US-REG’s HEFTY CAMPAIGN DONATIONS and Reid’s support. And it was Reid who approached US-REG about locating in Nevada, he said.

“Once he and his staff learned A-Power was searching for a site to build a wind turbine assembly facility, they presented Nevada as an option,” Dorton said.

Krumholz of the Center for Responsive Politics said this type of relationship — large donors with specific business needs establishing a relationship with a powerful politician who can help — is quite common.

“It’s not out of the ordinary, but it may raise eyebrows,” she said.

In this instance, she said, the two sides appear to have each had something specific to offer the other.

“It was helpful to Reid to say, ‘We’ll help you raise money. We’ll serve up victory on a silver platter for you. We’ll bring green jobs to the state,’” Krumholz said. “It’s like a ready-made campaign platform – and it was accompanied by real dollars.”

And the importance of getting Reid’s endorsement for their project cannot be overemphasized, she said.

“To get the sanction of the most powerful man in the Senate — it’s priceless,” Krumholz said. “To say they have received his blessing will go a long way in Democratic circles.”

The members of US-REG, including registered lobbyists O’Hanlon and Boyd, did go to Capitol Hill to promote their project, urging lawmakers not to support Schumer’s amendment, Dorton said. Registered lobbyists are required to report their contact with members of Congress and government agencies, BUT NEITHER O’HANLON NOR BOYD REPORTED LOBBYING FOR US-REG. Dorton acknowledged that US-REG’s members have been lobbying on behalf of their own company, but said there was no conflict of interest and all legal disclosures have been made.

To further bolster the credibility of the Spinning Star project, the US-REG principals also sought to calm critics from the left.

The United Steelworkers labor union initially opposed the possibility of any stimulus dollars going toward the Spinning Star wind farm, based on the plan to import the turbines from China. But in August, the union, which is typically one of the most stalwart supporters of Democratic causes and had previously supported Schumer’s amendment, made an about-face. LEO W. GERARD, the union’s president, announced he had signed an agreement with A-Power to ensure that the steel used in the Spinning Star project came only from American steel mills employing union workers.

A representative from the Steelworkers did not reply to a request for comment, and Dorton referred questions about this deal to a press release issued by the Steelworkers in August. In the release, both A-Power’s Chinese executives and Gerard make it clear that IT IS US-REG THAT BROUGHT THEM TO THE TABLE.

“Through our partnership with U.S. Renewable Energy Group, we had the UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY TI MEET PRESIDENT GERARD and understand his vision,” said Jinxiang Lu, A-Power’s CEO.

Noting it was the first time that the Steelworkers teamed up with a Chinese company, Gerard heaped praise on, “the expertise and insight of Cappy McGarr and Ed Cunningham of the U.S. Renewable Energy Group who brought together this landmark cooperation.”

Photos of a signing ceremony show all four members of US-REG watching Gerard and A-Power’s CEO embrace.

Because of the sheer size and weight of wind turbine towers — each one can weigh hundreds of tons — the likelihood that they would be imported to interior west Texas from China was low to begin with. BUT the endorsement of the USW brought credibility to the project. It did nothing to change the fact that the most expensive, and labor-intensive, part of a turbine, the nacelle, WILL STILL COME FROM CHINA.

A-Power, the Chinese company, has found other friends in the Democratic Party, including at least one prominent one with LINKS TO US-REG.

In August, A-Power signed a new joint-venture agreement with TERRY MCAULIFFE, the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee and one of the party’s leading power brokers. US-REG’s spokesman said none of the partners had anything to do with McAuliffe’s deal with A-Power.

Throughout his career in Washington, US-REG partner O’Hanlon has frequently found himself working closely with McAuliffe. MCAULIFFE AND O’HANLON both did stints with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in the early 1980s and worked in fundraising for former Democratic presidential candidate DICK GEPHARDT.

O’Hanlon became a PARTNER in McAuliffe’s law firm in 1992. The firm, McAuliffe, Kelly and Rafaelli, was one of the most prominent Democratic firms in the District, and the target of criticism for earning hundreds of thousands of dollars in FEES FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES WITH ABYSMAL HUMAN RIGHTS RECORDS TO LOBBY ON THEIR BEHALF. When O’Hanlon left the firm in 1997, he founded a new one with John Rafaelli, McAuliffe’s old partner. O’Hanlon crossed professional paths with McAuliffe several more times throughout the 2000s, usually through their involvement with various national Democratic campaign groups.

McAuliffe, who now serves as chairman of a green car and energy company, signed a development deal with A-Power on AUG. 2. The public details of the deal are thin, but on the A-Power website, it is described as an agreement to develop a new wind, solar or biomass energy joint venture. Pictures from the signing ceremony show McAuliffe with a group of A-Power executives, and the caption describes him as, “a prominent politician, renowned political leader for the Democratic Party, financier and entrepreneur.”

Dorton, the US-REG spokesman, acknowledged O’Hanlon and McAuliffe are friends, but said no one from US-REG was involved in making the connection.
http://investigativereportingworkshop.org/investigations/wind-energy-funds-going-overseas/story/powerful-democrats-help-chinese-e/

Russ Choma is a Washington reporter who writes frequently about climate and energy issues, transportation and stimulus spending. He previously reported that the majority of stimulus money for wind-power projects was going to foreign-owned developers, and that the majority of turbines being installed were built by foreign-owned manufacturers.

A-Power - Power for a Green China:
http://apowerenergy.investorroom.com/index.php?s=114

There’s 5 billion left in government guaranteed DOE loans and 48 hrs to go. Will they get the loan or won’t they...It’s interesting that these foreign companies (and here) are essentially new yet the investors are anything but...thereagain they don’t have anything to lose. Free land, free loan and free business - for the investors who have investments in transportation, construction materials, real estate, etc.

Loan Programs Office:

September 28, 2011

DOE Finalizes $737 Million Loan Guarantee to Tonopah Solar Energy for Nevada Project

Solar power facility to generate clean, renewable power and fund 645 direct jobs

Washington D.C. — U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced the Department finalized a $737 million loan guarantee to Tonopah Solar Energy, LLC to develop the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project. The solar project, sponsored by SolarReserve, LLC, is a 110 megawatt concentrating solar power tower generating facility with molten salt as the primary heat transfer and storage medium.

It will be the first of its kind in the United States and the tallest molten salt tower in the world. Located 14 miles northwest of Tonopah, NEVADA on land leased from the Bureau of Land Management, the company anticipates the facility will fund 600 (temporary) construction jobs and 45 permanent jobs. The Crescent Dunes Solar Energy facility is expected to avoid nearly 290,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually and produce enough electricity to power over 43,000 homes.

“If we want to be a player in the global clean energy race, we must continue to invest in innovative technologies that enable commercial-scale deployment of clean, renewable power like solar,” said Secretary Chu. “Solar generation facilities, like the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project, help supply energy to local utilities and create hundreds of good, American clean energy jobs.”...
https://lpo.energy.gov/?p=5246

Monkey see - Monkey do. Don’t they know why Spain went broke? Leasing...from what I’ve gathered they’re getting this public land for 30 yrs - didn’t read anywhere we’d get money.

I remember some of the players - United Technologies is a partner, Clintonite Jamie Gorlick on the board, another United Tech individual is a DOE advisor. Ron Pelosi (Nancy’s bro-in-law - Pacific Group (a scandal there a few months ago), CALPERS Clean Energy and Technology Fund (pension money - ?union involvement), Argonaut Private Equity aka George Kaiser, etc. Europe, China, ME, are around out tax dollars like pigs in a trough. I have some stuff on solar reserve, will post, time permitting.

US Renewables Group

Lee Bailey
Chairman of the Board
Managing Director

Mr. Bailey is a founder and Managing Director of US Renewables Group (“USRG”)...prior to founding USRG, Mr. Bailey was a partner with Rustic Canyon Partners...

General Counsel for Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. (“ECD”) (NASDAQ:”ener”) a publicly traded renewable energy development company...

Founding director of the US Israel Fund, a $60 million joint US/Israeli government fund to commercialize technology in the areas of energy, information and biotechnology.

White House Director of International Science and Technology Commercialization initiatives for Russia, Egypt, Jordan, Israel and South Africa.

Founder and CEO of the Rural HEALTH CARE CORPORATION.

JAMES MC DERMOTT
Managing Director
US Renewables Group
Public power banker with Credit Suisse First Boston’s Municipal Finance Group in New York City.

Clients included Southern California Public Power Authority (“SCCPA”), Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (“LADWP”), Washington Public Power Supply System (“WPPSS”) and Salt River Project (“SRP”), Intermountain Power Authority (“IPA”) and several other West Coast municipal utilities.

Founded Stamps.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: “STMP“)

Vincent P. Fandozzi
Managing Director
Head of Citi Holdings Alternative Investments
Citigroup, Inc.

Mr. Fandozzi has been with CITIGROUP for the past 16 years, joining the Investment Bank’s Mergers & Acquisitions group in 1994.

In 2009, Vince took over as Head of all the Alternative and Private Equity activities for Citi Holdings. Prior to this, Vince was GLOBAL HEAD of M&A for all of Citigroup’s corporate M&A activities for three years.

Vince currently serves on the Board of Directors of WNA Inc., MSX Inc., Uplogix Inc., SOLAR RESERVE Inc., Great Point Energy, Socie World Co., MBA Polymers Inc., Wild Bunch SA and Continental Films SAS.

John Breckenridge

GOOD ENERGIES (Solar Reserve Investor – affiliated with SWITZERLAND)

John Breckenridge is the LEADER of the Good Energies North American Development Equity and Infrastructure team.

John’s Good Energies portfolio responsibilities have included board memberships at SAGE Electrochromics, Ice Energy, 3-Tier, SEQUOIA ENERGY, Solarfun Power, and SOLAR RESERVE, ATLANTIC WIND CONNECTION, and Champlin Energy, among others. He joined Good Energies from CCMP CAPITAL ADVISORS (FORMERLY KNOWN AS J.P. Morgan Partners) where he served as Operating Partner and Managing Director in both Tokyo and New York. Portifolios in the USA, Asia and Europe. While at JP Morgan’s he INVESTED in the renewable energy, traditional energy, industrial service, automotive, manufacturing and chemicals sectors, among others. He also provided guidance to western companies expanding into China or other Asian countries.

Prior to joining JP Morgan Partners in Tokyo, John was Chief Operating Officer of Densei Lambda KK, a publicly traded Japanese corporation with 8 factories located around the world and over 4,000 employees. He was also a LEADER of several large divisions of INVENSYS plc (Alistir Jessop from Solar Reserve Management also worked at INVENSYS) and Exide Electronics in the US.

ADDITIONAL RENEWABLE BOARD PARTICIPANTS:

DAVID NAZARIAN
Chief Investment Officer
NIMES CAPITAL (SOLAR RESERVE INVESTOR)

David Nazarian is the Chief Investment Officer of Nazarian Enterprises, and Qualcom Inc.

JASANDRA Nyker
Senior Vice President, Clean Energy and Technology
PACIFIC CORPORATE GROUP ASSET MANAGEMENT (INVESTOR)
Prior to joining PCG AM, Ms. Nyker worked for Booz Allen Hamilton in London. She also worked at LEHMAN BROTHERS along with Leon Black, Silver etc at the time of their demise.

Ryan Smith
Vice President
Credit Suisse (INVESTOR)
Ryan is a Vice President of the Customized Fund Investment Group located in New York. Ryan joined CREDIT SUISSE in 2001. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of RNT and as an Observer to Crystal IS, HelioVolt, SolarReserve and ZeroPoint. Ryan is a founding member of the New York Chapter of the Renewable Energy Business Network (REBN). He serves on the credit committee at the Lower East Side PEOPLE’S FEDERAL CREDIT UNION.

Steve Mitchell
Managing Director
Argonaut Private Equity (Solor Reserve Investor)
Steve Mitchell is Managing Director of ARGONAUT Private Equity, a venture capital and BUYOUT FIRM (KAISER will get Solyndra if they have no buyers) dedicated to financing and growing emerging market leaders. Mr. Mitchell currently sits on the Boards of Directors of: Global Client Solutions, Westec Intelligent Surveillance, Yulex Corporation, SOLYNDRA, Stepstone Group, Southwest United Industries, Green Hills Software, Newmans Valve, and Aspen Aerogels.
More here:
http://www.solar-reserve.com/index.html

Citigroup:
The Citi SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT portfolio includes companies ranging from water desalination project developers, like Stamford, Conn.-based POSEIDON RESOURCES Inc., and new recycling companies, like Richmond, Calif.-based MBA Polymers, to SOLAR RESERVE LLC, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based utility-scale solar energy storage company, and Cambridge, Mass.-based coal-gasification technology developer GREATPOINT ENERGY Inc.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/citi-sustainable-development-investments-looks-to-spin-out

Emerging Energy Graft: US and SPAIN project pipelines by 2012:
http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/emergingenergyresearchcsp1.jpg

Tony Lent is never mentioned yet he was a founder of US Renewables Group (“USRG”)...

USRG ASA, LLC (A subsidiary of US Renewable Group)

TONY LENT:

Mr. Tony Lent is the Senior Managing Director at WOLFENSHON & Company, L.L.C. Mr. Lent is also a Managing Director of Critical Resources Management. He is also an Advisor and Member of Investment Committee at SEA CHANGE MANAGEMENT, LLC. Mr. Lent was the Managing Director, President, and CO-FOUNDER at US RENEWABLES GROUP, LLC.

He has also worked as an ADVISOR to the:

National Renewable Energy Lab,

DOE,

EPA,

Duke Energy,

AEP,

AND World Bank’s Prototype Carbon Fund.

Mr. Lent headed up EA’s contribution to the development of the WORLD BANK’S PROTOTYPE CARBON. Prior to EA, he was a Co-Founder and Vice President of EcoTimber International.
http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=8157390
http://sec.edgar-online.com/asalliances-biofuels-llc/s-1a-securities-registration-statement/2006/11/08/section53.aspx

From post 30:

http://www.brettonwoods.org/index.php/179/Leadership_Staff
http://www.brettonwoods.org/index.php/180/Bretton_Woods_Institutions
http://www.brettonwoods.org/members/#International_Council_Members

Click the first link and you’ll find his boss - Wolfenshon. Click the other links and find the rest. One wonders if the TARP money and the Stimulus money went to the banks in order to provide Guaranteed loans for this energy caper - since we don’t know where the money went one can speculate. The DOE are already out front, in saying, that their records of who got what, are messed up.

And then there’s USRG’s powerful partner United Techologies and their powerful leaders, Jamie Gorelick et al, and their lobbyists (one of which is Steve McBee...). Most are retread Administration and Political workers who have an open door to the DOE. The fix was in and planned for a long time and not only by this administration. One can’t forget that GW Bush started the DOE just as one can’t forget that it was Richard Nixon who started the EPA. The EPA that the Clintonites funded with multi-millions as soon as they hit the WH.

SolarReserve: Solar & Salt in the Nevada Desert
By Katie Fehrenbacher Dec. 22, 2009,

SolarReserve will need significant funding to reach its goals. Founded just at the beginning of 2008, the company raised a hefty $140 million in September 2008 in a second round of funding from Citi Alternative Investments, Sustainable Development Investments, Good Energies, U.S. Renewables Group, PCG Clean Energy & Technology Fund, Nimes Capital and Credit Suisse. A SolarReserve spokesperson tells us the company is fully-funded until 2011.

Other solar companies that are looking to use hot liquid salt for energy storage include SkyFuel, with its “SkyTrough” technology, and Spanish renewable energy giant Abengoa.
http://gigaom.com/cleantech/solarreserve-solar-salt-in-the-nevada-desert/

Quite amazing feat to get so much money from a bank in just a few short months especially an “unknown” company. They had enough money until 2011 - almost as if they knew they’d be selected in 2011.

And as for the foreign company Abengoa/Spain - they got $65 million. Germany, Italy, Spain, ME countries, Israel, Norway, Switzerland...have all gotten our tax-dollars. And if they fail, they’ve got the Real Estate tycoon investors lined up, and ready to take the state-of-the-arc finished product, along with the land, intellectual properties... the water, farmland, minerals, and perhaps even oil resources.

Tesla: Fisker Used Our Secrets to Get VC Funds

By Craig Rubens

APRIL 16, 2008

The entirety of Tesla Motors’ lawsuit against Fisker Automotive became available today, enumerating six charges, including breach of contract, fraud, and violation of unfair competition laws. Aside from alleging that Fisker simultaneously sabotaged Tesla while preparing to launch a competing company and car, the suit claims that Fisker specifically shared trade secrets with third parties to seek funding for Fisker Automotive and the Karma.

That disclosure might not be that big of a deal on its own, except for the fact that Fisker’s investors are the celebrity cleantech VCs at Kleiner Perkins: John Doerr, Ray Lane and former Vice President Al Gore.

Were they duped into investing a sizable $25 million (according to Business Week) into a company that took trade secrets from a competitor? Or did they know the ins and outs of Fisker’s relationship with Tesla before they made the investment? Will we see any KPBC partners on the stand?
Read more:
http://gigaom.com/cleantech/tesla-fisker-used-our-secrets-to-get-vc-funds/

It would be an interesting story to investigate but for the time involved. Anyway, the DOE funded Fisker Automotive with $529 million in April, 2010 and Tesla Motors just happened to get $465 million Jan 2010.

Ford Motor Company got $5.907 billion in Sep 2009

Nissan North America, Inc. $1.448 billion Jan 2010

Severstal Dearborn, LLC $730 million June 2011

The Vehicle Production Group LLC $50 million Mar 2011

And then there’s...

2010: SOLAR MILLENNIUM - $1.9 billion loan guarantee from the DOE to Germans and Saudi:

SOLAR TRUST AMERICA, a JOINT VENTURE BETWEEN GERMAN FIRMS SOLAR MILLENNIUM AND FERROSTAAL:
http://solartrustofamerica.com/about-us/management-team/uwe-t.-schmidt-copy.html

March 2009: The International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) is the NEW MAJORITY OWNER OF MAN FERROSTAAL. The transaction includes all business activities and subsidiaries. The Chief Executive Officer of MAN AG, HAKEN SAMUELSSON (Chairman Man AG, CEO Ferrostaal Incorp..., explained the rationale behind the sale, “With this step, MAN is now concentrating on the manufacturing industries in the field of transport related engineering. This focus improves the conditions for sustainable growth in all our business areas.”

“His Excellency Khadem Abdulla Al Qubaisi, Managing Director of IPIC, focused on the growth potential to be leveraged with MAN Ferrostaal, “We intend to award contracts for large industrial projects to MAN Ferrostaal and want to realize potential for growth at home and abroad. At the same time, we intend to open up market potential in the area of future technologies and deeper market access in the countries MAN Ferrostaal is active in.””
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/03/business/global/03sanctions.htmlManagement / Supervisory BoardBoard

I think the Saudi were also in on Solyndra, at least in the beginning.

bttt

OCTOBER 7, 2008: SOLYNDRA...VCs including Redpoint Ventures, RockPort Capital, Argonaut, CMEA Ventures and U.S. Venture Partners. The startup also has several especially well-heeled backerss like the Walton family fund Madrone Capital, Abu Dubai’s MASDAR and Richard Branson’s Virgin Green Fund.
http://gigaom.com/cleantech/solyndra-amasses-600m-for-totally-tubular-thin-film-solar/

AUGEST 21, 2011: “SOLYNDRA raised about $1 billion in equity from investors including Redpoint Ventures, RockPort Capital, Argonaut, CMEA Capital, U.S. Venture Partners, the Walton family fund Madrone Capital, Abu Dubai’s MASDAR and Richard Branson’s Virgin Green Fund. That financing makes Solyndra one of the most well-funded tech companies out of Silicon Valley”

Redpoint Ventures (Mr. John Walecka - Director of the Stanford Business School Venture Capital Trust),

RockPort Capital (David J Frend - also serves on Aerogel board w/ Steven Mitchell),

Argonaut (George Kaiser - Foundation etc),

CMEA Capital, (Thomas R. Baruch also serves on Wildcat Technologies),

U.S. Venture Partners (Dr. Winston S. Fu),

the Walton family fund Madrone Capital (Mr. Jameson J. McJunkin),

Abu Dubai’s MASDAR (Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company),

Richard Branson’s Virgin Green Fund (Mr. Anup M. Jacob also serves on Wildcat Technologies).
http://gigaom.com/cleantech/the-story-behind-solyndras-rise-and-fall/

Directors of Solyndra:

Christian Gronet 2005 Chief Executive Officer, Director
Wilbur Stover 2007 Chief Financial Officer, Vice President

Benjamin Bierman 2009 Executive Vice President - Operations and Engineering

Kirk Roller 2009 Vice President - Worldwide Sales

James Truman 2005 Vice President - Marketing and Business Development

Thomas Baruch 2006 Director

Winston Fu 2006 Director

James Gibbons 2005 Director

Anup Jacob 2007 Director

Dan Maydan 2006 Director

Jameson McJunkin 2009 Director

Steven Mitchell 2008 Director

Alex O’Cinneide 2007 Director

David Prend 2006 Director

Raymond Sims 2008 Director

John Walecka 2006 Director

BIOGRAPHIES:

Dr. Christian M. Gronet is the Chief Executive Officer, Director of Solyndra, Inc.

He has served as Chief Executive Officer and as a director since he founded Solyndra in May 2005. Previously he spent 11 years at APPLIED MATERIALS, Inc., a semiconductor manufacturing equipment company, most recently as Vice President and General Manager of the Transistor, Capacitor and Gate product group. Dr. Gronet founded G-Squared Semiconductor Corporation (acquired by Applied Materials). Dr. Gronet also worked at SERA Solar Corporation, where he pioneered new photovoltaic technologies. Dr. Gronet holds over 20 U.S. patents in thin film and related technologies. He holds a B.S. in materials science and a Ph.D. in semiconductor processing, both from Stanford University.

Mr. Wilbur G. Stover, Jr. is the Chief Financial Officer, Vice President of Solyndra, Inc., since December 2007.

From June 1989 until August 2007, Mr. Stover served in various capacities at Micron Technology, Inc., a manufacturer of semiconductor devices, most recently Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Stover holds a B.A. in business administration with an accounting emphasis from Washington State University.

Mr. Benjamin B. Bierman is Executive Vice President - Operations and Engineering of Solyndra, Inc.

He joined the company in August 2006 and has served in positions of increasing responsibility since that time, most recently as Executive Vice President, Operations and Engineering since October 2009. Prior to joining the company, from March 2005 until August 2006, Mr. Bierman served as the Vice President-Business Management of Coherent, Inc. Mr. Bierman served as Managing Director at Lam Research Corporation from December 2003 to March 2005. Previously, during an eight-year tenure at APPLIED MATERIALS, Mr. Bierman served as Director of Engineering and Technology and Managing Director of two product units. Mr. Bierman holds an associate’s degree in Engineering Technology from SUNY Farmingdale.

Mr. Kirk R. Roller is Vice President - Worldwide Sales of Solyndra, Inc., since June 2009.

Mr. Roller was previously Vice President, Sales at SunEdison LLC, a solar integrator, where he was responsible for sales of photovoltaic projects, sales operations, and sales of renewable energy credits from July 2008 until June 2009. Prior to SunEdison, from April 1998 until July 2005, Mr. Roller was President and Chief Operating Officer of Emulex Corporation, a fiber channel based networking storage solutions company. At Emulex, he held various positions including Vice President, Worldwide Sales, Sr. Vice President, Sales and Marketing, prior to becoming President and Chief Operating Officer. Prior to Emulex, Roller held various positions at Compaq Computer Corporation before taking the position of General Manager of the networking components division, which provided networking design support and sales for all network interface components. Prior to Compaq, Mr. Roller held the position of Sr. Vice President, Sales and Marketing at Advanced InterConnections Corp., and Vice President, Worldwide Sales for Thomas-Conrad Corporation. Mr. Roller holds a B.A. in business management from the University of Texas.

Dr. James K. Truman is Vice President - Marketing and Business Development of Solyndra, Inc.

Dr. Truman was previously Vice President, Marketing at ReVera Incorporated, a provider of metrology used to monitor and control films and critical layers deployed in the semiconductor manufacturing process, from 2004 until 2005. Prior to ReVera, Dr. Truman was Director, Advanced Research Programs while on the Research Faculty, Department of Materials Science & Engineering, at the University of Florida from 2003 until 2004. From 1995 until 2003, Dr. Truman served in a number of executive capacities at APPLIED MATERIALS, Inc., including General Manager of the Wet Clean Division and Chief Marketing Officer and Director of Strategic Technology & Marketing for the Transistor Gate and Substrate division. Dr. Truman holds a B.S. in metallurgical engineering and material science from the University of Notre Dame, and a M.S. and a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from the University of Florida.

Mr. Thomas R. Baruch is Director of Solyndra, Inc., since February 2006.

Mr. Baruch is the founder and a managing director of CMEA VENTURES, a venture capital firm that was established in 1989 as an affiliated fund of New Enterprise Associates. Mr. Baruch is currently on the board of directors of Entropic Communications, Inc., and several private companies. Before starting CMEA Ventures, Mr. Baruch was a founder and Chief Executive Officer of Microwave Technology, Inc., a supplier of gallium arsenide integrated circuits. Prior to his employment with Microwave Technology, Inc., Mr. Baruch managed a dedicated venture fund at Exxon Corp, and was President of the EXXON Materials Division. Earlier in his career, Mr. Baruch worked as a patent attorney and remains a registered patent attorney. He is also both a MEMBER of the Executive Committee of the Council of Competitiveness and a MEMBER of the Steering Committee of the ESIS Initiative (Energy, Security, Innovation and Sustainability) of the Council on Competitiveness. Mr. Baruch is a member of the board of trustees of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the board of trustees of the Berkeley Institute of Synthetic Biology. Mr. Baruch holds a B.S. in engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a J.D. from Capital University.

Dr. Winston S. Fu is Director of Solyndra, Inc., since February 2006.

Dr. Fu is a Managing Member of several venture capital funds commonly referred to as U.S. VENTURE PARTNERS, or USVP. He joined USVP following his selection as a Kauffman Fellow in Venture Capital in 1997. Previously, Dr. Fu served in technical and marketing roles at Vixel Corporation from 1991 until 1995. Previously, Dr. Fu researched and developed technologies in the areas of semiconductors, lasers and superconductors at Stanford University, Sandia National Laboratories and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - (how many stats did they wee wee up...). He serves on the board of directors of Active-Semi International, Inc., CFX Battery, Inc., Maskless Lithography, Inc., Redwood Systems, Inc. and Teknovus, Inc. Dr. Fu holds a B.S. in physics from MIT, a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Stanford University and a M.S. in business administration from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.

Dr. James F. Gibbons is Director of Solyndra, Inc., since December 2005.

Dr. Gibbons is currently Professor (Research) in Electrical Engineering at STANFORD University (how many stats did they put out on greenie stuff). He joined the Stanford faculty in 1957 and served as the Dean of the School Engineering from 1984 to 1996. He was the founder of SERA Solar Corporation, and he also co-founded G-SQUARED Semiconductor Corporation (which was acquired by APPLIED MATERIALS, Inc.). Dr. Gibbons has served on boards of directors for both private and public companies, including LOCKHEED- MARTIN Corporation, CISCO Systems, Inc., El Paso Energy, SRI International and Raychem Corp. He has also served on committees working with the Presidential Science Advisor in the Nixon, Reagan and Bush Administrations. Dr. Gibbons is a Life Fellow of the Institution of Electrical and Electronic Engineers and was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Gibbons holds a B.S. from Northwestern University and a Ph.D. from Stanford University.

Mr. Anup M. Jacob is Director of Solyndra, Inc., since July 2007.

Mr. Jacob is a Founding Partner of VIRGIN GREEN FUND. Prior to Virgin Green Fund, Mr. Jacob was a partner in TPG’s Aqua Fund, which focused on late stage INVESTMENTS IN WATER in water, clean technology and renewable resources companies, from 1999 until 2007. Mr. Jacob has served on the board of directors of several public and private companies, including Wildcat Discovery Technologies, Inc., Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd, Metering Technology Corporation and Scanship Environmental Solutions. Prior to TPG, Mr. Jacob was an investment banker at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, Inc. in the Global Power and Merchant Banking groups. Mr. Jacob holds a B.A., with honors, in economics from the University of Chicago.

Dan Maydan is Director of Solyndra, Inc., since June 2006.

Dr. Maydan was President of APPLIED MATERIALS, Inc. from 1994 to 2003 and a MEMBER of that company’s board of directors. Before joining Applied Materials, Dr. Maydan spent 13 years managing new technology development at Bell Laboratories. In 1998, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Dr. Maydan serves on the board of directors of Infinera Corporation and Electronics For Imaging, Inc. Dr. Maydan holds a B.S. and M.S. in electrical engineering from Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

Mr. Jameson J. McJunkin is Director of Solyndra, Inc., since September 2009.

Mr. McJunkin is a Founding Partner at MADRONE CAPITAL Partners, L.L.C., an investment firm based in Menlo Park, CA that was formed in 2005. Mr. McJunkin leads Madrone’s efforts in sustainability and alternative energy, and currently serves on the board of directors of Achates Power Inc., Enphase Energy, Inc., Fluidic Energy, and the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Prior to Madrone, he was a technology growth capital investor at TA Associates, Inc., a private equity firm, from 2000 until 2005. Mr. McJunkin holds an A.B. with honors from the WOODROW WILSON SCHOOL of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and an M.B.A. from the STANFORD University Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar.

Mr. Steven R. Mitchell is Director of Solyndra, Inc., since November 2008.

Mr. Mitchell is Managing Director of ARGONAUT Private Equity, a venture capital and buyout firm dedicated to financing and growing emerging market leaders. Mr. Mitchell currently sits on the Boards of Directors of Global Client Solutions, LLC, Westec Intelligent Surveillance Inc., Yulex Corporation, Solyndra, StepStone Group LLC, Southwest United Industries, Inc., Green Hills Software, Inc., Newmans Valve, Ltd. and ASPEN AEROGELS, Inc. Prior to joining Argonaut in November 2004, Mr. Mitchell was a Principal in both Radical Incubation LP and 2929 Entertainment, where he led acquisitions and investments primarily focused in the media, sports and entertainment sectors. He previously was a corporate attorney at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP SPECIALIZING IN MERGERS AND ACQUISIONS. Mr. Mitchell is a graduate of Baylor University and the University of San Diego School of Law.

Mr. Alex O’Cinneide is Director of Solyndra, Inc., since July 2007.

Mr. O’Cinneide is the Head of Venture Investments of the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (MASDAR). Prior to joining Masdar in January 2007, he was a Managing Partner in Quorum European Partners (since changed names), an energy technology focused venture capital firm, from 2004 until 2007. He also worked at Unisys Corp. in the Business Transformation group. He started his career in two technology companies before joining KPMG Consulting (???Pakistan group), where he was a director in the Strategy and Private Equity Advisory group (London & New York). He presently serves on the board of directors of EnerTech Environmental, Inc., DuraTherm, Inc. and Enviromena Power Systems LLC. He holds a B.A. and M.A. from Trinity College Dublin, a MSc. in Philosophy from the London School of Economics and a MSc. in Finance from the London Business School.

Mr. David J. Prend is Director of Solyndra, Inc., October 2006.

Mr. Prend is the Managing General Partner of RockPort Capital Partners, a venture capital firm. Prior to founding RockPort Capital Partners, Mr. Prend held the positions of Director and Managing Director at SALOMON BROTHERS from June 1990 until January 1997, and headed the Global Energy Investment Banking Group. Previously, he served in a number of executive capacities for SHEARSON LEHMAN’S NATURAL RESOURCES INVESTMENT BANKING GROUP, Amoco and Bechtel Corporation. Mr. Prend currently serves on the boards of directors of Achates Power, Inc., ASPEN AEROGELS, Inc., Aspen Products Group, Inc., Hycrete Technologies, Inc., Satcon Technology Corporation and SustainX, Inc. He is also a member of the board of directors of the National Venture Capital Association. Mr. Prend holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley and a M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Mr. Raymond J. Sims is Director of Solyndra, Inc., since December 2008.

Mr. Sims is Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Financial Engines, Inc, an independent registered investment advisor. Prior to joining Financial Engines, he served at RAYCHEM Corporation, a technology company, as Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer from 1993 until 1999, as Vice President and Treasurer from 1985 to 1993 and as Director, Internal Audit from 1982 to 1984. Mr. Sims holds an M.B.A from the Harvard Business School and a B.S. in business and economics from Lehigh University.

Mr. John Walecka is Director of Solyndra, Inc., since February 2006.

Mr. Walecka is a founding partner of Redpoint Ventures, which was established in 1999. Prior to founding Redpoint Ventures, Mr. Walecka was a general partner with Brentwood Venture Capital, a firm he joined in 1984. Mr. Walecka has also served as a member of the board of directors of Entropic Communications, Inc., a fabless semiconductor company, since September 2001. Mr. Walecka served as director of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists (WAVC) and is currently a director of Fortinet, Inc. and the STANFORD Business School Venture Capital Trust. Mr. Walecka holds a B.S. and an M.S. in engineering from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business (also known as Stanford Business School or Stanford GSB).

Solyndra LLC Insiders on Board Members

Dr. Christian M. Gronet, Chris served as Chief Executive Officer of Solyndra, Inc. Dr. Gronet founded Solyndra, Inc.

Other Board Members on Board Members

Name (Connections) Relationships Type of Board Members Primary Company Age

John Walecka II 52 Relationships — Redpoint Ventures 50

Thomas Baruch J.D. 56 Relationships — CMEA Capital 71

Dan Maydan Ph.D. 93 Relationships — Silicom Ventures LLC 75

Winston Fu Ph.D. 39 Relationships - U.S. Venture Partners -

Dr. Winston S. Fu is a General Partner at U.S. Venture Partners. He joined the firm as an Associate in 1997 and is based at Menlo Park. Dr. Fu is serving at this position since 2000 and leads the firm’s activities in CHINA. His focuses on investments related to information technologies (both software and hardware solutions), energy efficiency, and adaptation to climate change sectors. Prior to joining the firm, Dr. Fu served in technical and marketing roles at Vixel ... Corporation. As a Director of Product Marketing, he was responsible for developing new applications for the VCSEL device product line at the firm. Dr. Fu serves on the Board of Active-Semi International, Contour Energy Systems, CFX Battery, Redwood Systems, CiraNova, Solyndra, Maskless Lithography Inc., Xicato, Princeton Lightwave, and Superprotonic, Inc. From 1999 to 2004, he served on the Board of New Focus. During the past decade, Dr. Fu also served on the Board of Ponte Solutions, Alchemy, Clear Shape Technologies, Brion Technologies, and Teknovus. He is an Advisor to Front Range Volleyball. Dr. Fu has researched and developed technologies in the areas of semiconductors, lasers, magnetic materials, and superconductors at Stanford University, MIT, Sandia National Laboratories, and 3M Company. He regularly speaks at conferences in China on the experiences of venture-backed companies in Silicon Valley. Dr. Fu is a Kauffman Fellow in Venture Capital and Entrepreneurship. He holds a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Stanford University; an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, where he was an Austin Scholar; and a Bachelor’s degree in Physics from MIT.David Prend 56 Relationships — RockPort Capital Partners —

Alex O’Cinneide 44 Relationships - Masdar Venture Capital -

Mr. Alex O’Cinneide is the Director and Head of Investments at MASDAR Venture Capital. Previously, Mr. O’Cinneide was the Chief Executive Officer and Partner at QUORUM European Partners (now known as Sefton Partners LLP - these guys change names like the weather). He was also Managing Partner at the firm. Mr. O’Cinneide has worked on a number of investments for over four years and has extensive experience in European market. He was appointed in JANUARY 2007 to manage the MASDAR CLEAN TECH FUND (ADFEC) and ABU DHABI FUTURE ENERGY. Mr. O’Cinneide started his career in two venture capital backed technology companies. Previously, as a Principal and Director in the KPMG Consulting’s Strategy and Private Equity Advisory Group (London and New York), he was in charge of finding investments in business services throughout the region. Mr. O’Cinneide is an ADVISOR of ENERTECH Capital. He serves on the Board of SOLYNDRA, Inc., Enertech Environmental, Inc., Enviromena Inc, and Duratherm, Inc.; and is an Observer to the Board of NanoGram Corporation. Mr. O’Cinneide was a Director of Unisys Inc. and a Member of Investment Committee of Masdar Clean Tech Fund, L.P. He holds an M.Sc. from the London School of Economics, a Masters in Finance from London Business School, and an M.A. and B.A.from Trinity College, Dublin.

MASDAR VENTURE CAPITAL IS A VENTURE CAPITAL ARM OF ABU DHABI FUTURE ENERGY COMPANY specializing in direct and fund of funds investments. The firm invests in clean technology and renewable energy, energy and material efficiency, carbon management, environmental resources and services, monetization, water usage, and desalination. It prefers to invest in North America, Europe and Asia. The firm seeks equity investments between $5 million and $35 million. It takes both controlling and non-controlling stakes. The firm seeks to exit its investments after a period of five to six years. Masdar Venture Capita was founded in 2006 and is based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber is the Chief Executive Officer.

Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber’ other affiliations:

Chief Executive Officer, Managing Director and Director
Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company PJSC
Chairman of the Board
Abu Dhabi Ports Company
Director
Advanced Technology Investment Company LLC

RYAN SMITH, Director of SOLAR RESERVE serves on the Masdar Venture Capital Board:

Mr. Ryan Smith is employed at CREDIT SUISSE since 2001. He currently serves as a Director of Europlasma SA and as an Observer at ZeroPoint Cleantech Inc., Crystal IS, and HelioVolt. Mr. Smith is a Member of Investment Committee at Masdar Clean Tech Fund, L.P. He volunteers and serves on the Board of Directors at the Lower East Side People’s Federal Credit Union and is a Member of the Advisory Board at Cristo Rey New York High School in East Harlem. Mr. Smith received ... a B.A. degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1998.

Michael Asprey from the **CARLYLE GROUP** serves on MASDAR Venture Capita board:

Michael W. Arpey background:

Mr. Michael W. Arpey, J.D. serves as Head of Investor Relations Management and Managing Director at Carlyle, Inc. Mr. Arpey serves as Managing Director and Co-Head of Indiana Future Fund I, L.P. He serves as Managing Director and Member of the Operating Committee of The Carlyle Group. At Carlyle, he is responsible for strategic planning and business development. He is responsible for fund formation strategy, new investor products and coordination of investor relations. ...

John Major (UK ex-PM from CREDIT SUISSE is on the board at Carlyle with Asprey):
http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=3553669&privcapId=23333&previousCapId=84647135&previousTitle=Masdar%20Venture%20Capital

Gone With the Wind: Carbon Millionaires Arrested for Fraud (Four Winds)

November 15, 2009

Italian Wind Fraud Investigation Extends to the Netherlands, UK, Ireland, and Spain.

For some carbon millionaires, lining their pockets legally through taxpayer subsidies and hand outs is not enough. They choose to cheat even though they’re playing a game that’s already rigged.

The Financial Times reports that:

Oreste Vigorito, head of the IVPC energy company and president of Italy’s National Association of Wind Energy, was arrested on Tuesday in Naples. Vito Nicastri, a Sicilian business associate, was arrested in Alcamo, Sicily.

Two other men were arrested in Sicily and the Naples area, while 11 others were charged but not arrested.

“Gone with the wind”, mounted by the finance ministry’s anti-fraud police, started in 2007 and began by blocking public subsidies worth €9.4m ($14m, £8.4m) granted by the ministry for economic development. Last year, police confiscated seven wind farms with 185 turbines in Sicily linked to IVPC.

Anti-mafia prosecutors in Sicily have launched a parallel investigation.

FT reports that these saviors of our planet were building wind farms that were “BUILT WITH PUBLIC SUBSIDIES BUT HAD NEVER FUNCTIONED.”

Vigorito had ties to BRIAN CAFFYN, founder of the controversial “CAPE WIND” project planned for Massachusetts’ Nantucket Sound, which has been criticized as a poor investment for taxpayers for the energy it will produce. Vigorito was not an investor in Cape Wind...
http://cfact.eu/2009/11/15/gone-with-the-wind-arrests-for-massive-fraud-in-italy/

Ospraie, D.E. Shaw, Developer to Build Rhode Island Wind Farm

By Jim Polson - September 25, 2008 15:22 EDT

Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) — Ospraie Management LLC, D.E. SHAW & Co. and a development company were SELECTED to build a $1 BILLION offshore wind farm that will provide 15 percent of Rhode Island’s power.

Construction is dependent on negotiation of a formal agreement and approval by state and federal regulators, Governor Donald L. Carcieri said today in a statement. DEEPWATER WIND, a venture OWNED BY OSPRAIE, SHAW and a development firm called FIRST WIND, was SELECTED from among seven groups that proposed doing the project.

The state put the project out for bids in April. Deepwater Wind plans to build the wind farm without state funding, the governor said.

FIRST WIND, based in Newton, Massachusetts, has 92 megawatts of wind turbines in operation, according to the statement. First Wind’s backers include investment firms MADISON DEARBORN PARTNERS LLC and SHAW, according to its Web site.

Ospraie is the New York investment firm that shut down its biggest hedge fund this month because of losses on commodities investments.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a_iLNJiO0VBU&refer=us

[...]In September 2009, after FIRST WIND AFFILIATES received $115 MILLION in federal stimulus money, $74.6 million of which for the Cohocton NY project, U.S. Rep. Eric J. Massa (D-N.Y.) wrote to President Barack Obama, calling the grants “very alarming” and saying the company “abused the public trust. “No electricity has been produced for sale out of the projects,” but the company “has already collected production rewards for non-existent energy,” Massa told Obama.

Back in the First Wind SEC IPO application is the acknowledgement that hedging on REC’s was a common practice. One of the projects inclusive in non-existing electric production hedging was the proposed Prattsburgh, NY development. That venture was never built and the developer ultimately made a formal withdrawal from the town and terminated their land leases.

Will the public get an accurate account if those hedges were legal or complied with government regulations? Do not expect federal authorities to keep First Wind honest. THE FINANCIAL OWNERSHIP OF FIRST WIND RESIDES WITH MADISON DEARBORN and D.E. SHAW HEDGE FUNDS, 42% for each firm. Madison Dearborn has friends in high places, RAHM EMMUEL being one.

After leaving the Clinton Administration. Emanuel, engaged in investment banking at WASSERSTEIN PERELLA. Madison Dearborn did business through Emanuel.

Madison Dearborn Partners, a Chicago private equity firm is located is in the same building as Wasserstein’s offices.

The New York Times writes,

“Back in 1998 John Simpson, who ran the Chicago office of the investment banking boutique Wasserstein Perella & Company, had flown to Washington to meet with Mr. Emanuel at the behest of Mr. Simpson’s boss, Bruce Wasserstein, a major Democratic donor and renowned Wall Street dealmaker who had gotten to know Mr. Emanuel. “I had this idea that this could work and that it had upside,” Mr. Wasserstein, now chairman and chief executive of LAZARD, the investment bank, told The Times. “It worked out better than I could have hoped.”

“And better than Mr. Emanuel could have imagined as well. Over the course of a three-hour-plus dinner, Mr. Simpson and Mr. Emanuel discussed how they might work together.”

Upon leaving the private sector, Emanuel received campaign contributions from Madison Dearborn Partners, in the amount of $98,200 from 2002-2010.

Larry Summers did even better....
http://batr.org/reactionary/042510.html

I don’t know that the Emanuel implication can be proven but there’s certainly a link though D.E. Shaw has no need him anyway. certainly didn’t need him as he’s got friends that are a lot higher in the corrupt pyramid.

“UPC (FIRST WIND) has been working in China since 2006, and we have seen this market go from a standing start to one of the largest in the world for wind energy. We expect to see sustained long term growth in the wind market in China, and UPC, with support from GEF, is looking forward to participating fully in this market,” said BRIAN CAFFYN, CEO and Chairman of UPC.
http://batr.org/view/052310.html

5/01/2008: They changed their name from UPC to Four Winds

7/21/2009 First Winds gets 115 million loan from investor - Alberta Management Corporation (AIMCo) and another from HSH Norbank for Four Winds Stetson Project – the largest Windmill Farm in New England.

9/03/2009 First Winds (gets first Recovery Act grant) awarded $115 million in grants from the US Department of Treasury and Energy via The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
http://www.cohoctonwind.com/cohocton/news.cfm?ID=4a6350cf%2Db75b%2D4ba5%2D847d%2D6e2baf3d6bfa&test
http://www.cohoctonwind.com/cohocton/news.cfm

First Wind warns of possible loan default

Date: Friday, May 14, 2010

...First Wind’s projects come with heavy up-front capital costs. In the first quarter, the company’s net loss more than doubled to $10.6 million, compared with a net loss of $3.5 million in the year-ago period...

Over the past 18 months, though, First Wind has proved adept at accessing capital. Since the beginning of 2009, the company said it has refinanced, raised or received about $2 billion for First Wind and its projects.

The company’s investors include Chicago-based private equity firm Madison Dearborn Capital Partners and hedge fund heavyweight D.E. Shaw.
http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2010/05/10/daily47.html

2008: Lehman’s was their initial financier (which makes one wonder why Lehman’s wasn’t “saved” - why not?):
http://www.cohoctonwind.com/cohocton/news.cfm?ID=4670bd36-5d3d-403c-af6e-3358f759a6c1&test

D.E. SHAW & CO LP:

In 1994, Shaw was appointed by President Clinton to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, where he was chairman of the Panel on Educational Technology.

In 2000, he was elected to the board of directors of the American Association for the Advancement of Science served as its treasurer 2000-2010.

In 2007, Shaw was elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In 2008, Forbes estimated his wealth to $2.5 billion.

In 2009, he was appointed by President Obama again to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.[3]

In 2007, David Shaw sold a 20% minority stake in the Shaw group to LEHMAN BROTHERS, as part of a broader strategy to diversify his personal holdings.[citation needed] At the time of its bankruptcy in September 2009 Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., had holdings in D.E. Shaw & Co.[15]

In 2006, Lawrence Summers became managing director at D.E. Shaw & Co. and left in 2008, receiving $5.2 million in compensation for that period.[9]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_shaw

MADISON DEARBORN PARTNERS

Madison Dearborn Partners (MDP) is a private equity firm specializing in leveraged buyouts of privately held or publicly traded companies, or divisions of larger companies; recapitalizations of family-owned or closely held companies; balance sheet restructurings; acquisition financings; and growth capital investments in mature companies.

MDP invests through a series of private limited partnerships and its investors include a variety of PENSION FUNDS, endowments and other institutional investors:

1993 - Madison Dearborn Capital Partners ($550 million)
1997 - Fund II ($925 million)
1999 - Fund III ($2.2 billion)
2000 - Fund IV ($4.1 billion)
2006 - Fund V ($6.5 billion)
2010 - Fund VI ($4.1 billion)[11]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madison_Dearborn_Partners

Madison Dearborn Partners - John Canning - board members (I think this is the bunch who got Obama elected):
http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/relationship.asp?personId=74410

D.E.Shaw Co., LP - board affiliations - one of them is Jonathan Silver from the DOE (Silver ...
http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/relationship.asp?personId=232164

Shaw was a major contributor to Obama’s inaugural and he’s a fund raiser for his 2012 election...the Blackstone Group has popped up - it was only a matter of time....
http://www.muckety.com/D-E-Shaw-Co-LP/5012812.muckety

Senator Wyden’s Son Starts Hedge Fund After D.E. Shaw Stint
February 24, 2011

...Before graduating last year from Columbia University’s business school in New York with a master’s degree, Adam Wyden worked as an intern at the $19 billion hedge fund founded by David Shaw, a Democratic fundraiser who backed Ron Wyden’s campaigns in 2004 and 2010....

Ron Wyden received contributions totaling $9,600 from Shaw and his wife, Beth, during 2009, with each giving the maximum $4,800 that individuals are allowed to donate for any election cycle, OpenSecrets.org said. Shaw gave $5,000 last year to Holding Onto Oregon’s Priorities, a political action committee set up by Wyden to help other Democratic candidates, and $33,500 to the party’s senatorial and congressional campaign committees...(he’s also a friend of BIll and Hill)
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-02-24/senator-wyden-s-son-starts-hedge-fund-after-d-e-shaw-stint.html

Merkley, Wyden Announce Nearly $150 Million in Recovery Act Funding for Oregon Wind Farms
Sep-01-2009
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/september012009/wind_farms_9-1-09.php

One wonders who got our money this time.

“Merkley, Wyden Announce Nearly $150 Million in Recovery Act Funding for Oregon Wind Farms
Sep-01-2009
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/september012009/wind_farms_9-1-09.php
One wonders who got our money this time.”

It certainly wasn’t the people of Oregon yet they have to tolerate those grotesque windmills and give the socialist ventures their hard-earned tax-money. Well, at least Wyden got his son in the door of his venture buddy D.E. Shaw.

How many jobs from Oregon’s green energy incentives? No one knows

March 13, 2011,

Labor leader Tom Chamberlain decided some basic research was in order before the Oregon AFL-CIO could lend its support to the state’s increasingly expensive subsidies for green energy projects.

“We wanted to know what we were getting for the money,” he says. “How many jobs? What do they pay? Like any tax incentive program, you want to make sure you’re getting bang for your buck.”

Instead of numbers, Chamberlain says, he got the equivalent of a blank stare from the Department of Energy, which administers and approves the subsidies.

That was two years ago.

Today, little has changed. Despite claims by supporters that the subsidies have led to “thousands” of jobs, no one can say with any certainty what impact the Business Energy Tax Credit, or BETC, has had on the state’s stubbornly high unemployment rate.

To get a better handle on the link between the incentives and jobs, The Oregonian examined Energy Department records, talked to economists and looked at individual projects that received the incentives. Among the conclusions:

The Cost of Green

Green energy isn’t just a moral imperative, politicians say. It creates jobs. But how much do Oregon’s green energy subsidies really cost? And what do we get for our money?
Reporters Ted Sickinger and Harry Esteve have examined those questions over the last several months, plowing through records, interviewing experts in government and business, and analyzing what they found.

This series builds on their earlier reporting the past two years.

Day 1: The world’s largest wind farm gets $1.2 billion in subsidies and will generate 35 jobs.

Day 2: No one can say how many jobs Oregon’s energy tax credits have created.

Day 3: Bipartisan support makes rollbacks of the subsidies unlikely. With the exception of solar equipment manufacturing companies, such as SolarWorld and Sanyo, the state has no firm data on the number of jobs that can be attributed to the subsidies.

The subsidized cost of each job varies dramatically. For example, Horizon Wind Energy received $11 million in tax credits for an eastern Oregon wind farm that, after construction, created 36 full-time maintenance and operation jobs. Solaicx, a Portland solar manufacturer, got $9 million in tax credits and employs 127 full-time staff.

In some cases, the state has spent millions of tax dollars and gotten only a handful — or no — jobs in return because the companies didn’t perform as billed, were sold and shut down, or went bankrupt and folded.

Examples include Cascade Grains, a biofuel start-up that received $12 million in state subsidies before going bankrupt and out of business, and Reklaim Technologies, which got $3.4 million in state subsidies to recycle tires into oil. After two years, the recycling plant employs eight people, according to the Port of Morrow, and has yet to deliver a marketable product.

The examples above include only state incentives. Green energy projects often qualify for much bigger federal grants and tax breaks as well, vastly increasing the subsidized cost per job.

Scrutiny of Oregon’s tax credits intensified in recent years because their cost to the state has skyrocketed.

Since 2007, state spending on the incentives has gone from about $30 million a year to nearly $150 million a year.

Much of the increase results from an aggressive expansion of the incentives four years ago. In 2007, at the urging of then-Gov. Ted Kulongoski, the Legislature allowed wind and solar companies to claim credits for half their project costs, a tax break of up to $20 million for manufacturing plants and $10 million for wind projects. The rules were written loosely enough that many companies qualified for multiple tax credits.

What was once a small conservation program became one of Kulongoski’s top economic development strategies. He and other supporters of the expansion said it would lead to a new wave of industry and jobs in Oregon, helping the state pull itself out of its economic tailspin.

Yet until two years ago, THE STATE KEPT NO RECORDS OF JOBS ASSOCIATED WITH THE SUBSIDIES. In 2009, the Energy Department began asking for job information on the application forms. But few applicants included the information, causing the department to rewrite the forms with more explicit directions on how to calculate job numbers, says Diana Enright, spokeswoman for the department.

“It’s something new to think of this as a jobs program,” Enright says. “We’re learning as we go along what questions to ask.”

The exception has been solar manufacturing plants. Business Oregon, the state’s economic development agency, has closely tracked those jobs since 2009, says agency director Tim McCabe.

A spreadsheet provided by McCabe lists 1,482 jobs at three plants — 1,140 at SolarWorld and the remainder at Solaicx and Sanyo. Another 500 jobs are expected when SoloPower opens its flexible solar panel factory in Wilsonville, and another 94 when Solexent opens a promised plant in Gresham. Combined, the five companies are on track to receive about $180 million in state tax subsidies and even more in federal subsidies.

McCabe’s office produced a study for the Legislature that estimates the spinoff effect of the new solar plants at 7,000 additional jobs in the state. It used a modeling tool called “Implan” to assess the full impact of the incentives. Implan is widely used to calculate the multiplier effect of new jobs in the economy.

“Certain industries bring in more money than others and spend more money than others,” McCabe says. “Manufacturing has a substantial multiplier effect.”

Tying the tax incentives to job creation becomes more problematic, however, in other parts of the green economy. Oregon gives incentives based on how much it costs to build a solar factory or a wind farm — not on how many people get jobs as a result.

Wind farms are massively expensive facilities to build, but they employ few people once they’re up and running. They also have a smaller indirect economic impact than manufacturing plants. They buy few supplies, produce a smaller pool of wages to wash through the economy, and generate less personal income tax revenue for the state.

Consider the giant SHEPHERDS FLAT WIND FARM in eastern Oregon. The project’s developer has applied for and been pre-certified by the Department of Energy for three business energy tax credits totaling $30 MILLION. BUT it is only projected to create 35 permanent jobs.

Contrast that with SoloPower’s projection of 500 jobs for its $20 million tax credit.

The goal of Oregon’s green energy incentives has become somewhat nebulous, says Tim Duy, an economist at the University of Oregon. There is a kind of BLIND FAITH AMONG POLICY MAKERS, he says, that if Oregon develops the green energy cluster, and develops a brand as the green energy state, that untold riches will flow in the future.

That may or may not pay off, Duy says. Green jobs are mobile, easily poached by other states or countries dangling richer incentives or cheaper labor costs.

Technology and markets change, bankrupting some companies that Oregon has heavily subsidized.

Every dollar that Oregon taxpayers spend on the energy subsidies is a dollar they don’t have to spend elsewhere, Duy notes. That forgone spending would have its own economic impact, creating jobs, wages and taxes.

“We’re not asking the questions about the economic efficiency of the tax credits,” Duy says. “Those questions are being swept under the rug or ignored. My sense is that we’ll do anything for green energy in this state and we’re not doing a cost benefit analysis of what we’re getting out of it.”

McCabe, the state economic development director, says it might be time to take a new look at the incentives and link them more closely to companies that would have a bigger impact on the state economy.

DON’T TIE THE TAX BREAKS TO A SPECIFIC INDUSTRY, he says. Among the companies he suggests that might move here with the right incentives would be clothing manufacturers and food processors.

“I would change it,” he says. “Make it a broader-based incentive that’s tied to wages and to jobs.” http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/03/how_many_jobs_from_oregons_gre.html

A few comments:

“I just returned from camping in the Columbia River Gorge, and the visual pollution in the form of Windmills, the noise they generate and their blinking red lights at night has made it less much less attractive than any development could have. We can’t build on or develop our property, yet we subsidize the construction of ugly windmills that look far worse than any clear-cut made in the forest by the Timber Industry. We are defiantly not better off, nor has any of this infrastructure development been an improvement, or noble in its accomplishments.”

“The people who claimed to be protecting Oregon and promoting sustainability have ruined the natural beauty of the Columbia Gorge. I can’t imagine what it’s like to live there and constantly be reminded of how Oregon officials duped the taxpayers into selling-out homeowners there.”

“Horizon Wind is trying to build a big Wind Farm in Union County. They are threatening the local city counsels. They tell them they have two weeks to agree to a SIP and a Memo of Agreement or they will get NOTHING from the state suppliments. The Memo of Agreement says they will verbally support the Wind Farm, say the SIP pays off for all their concerns about damages, and that they will have no future claim to damages from views, wildlife damage, property value losses, health problems of citizens, etc., etc. So long to Free Speech. Our tax dollars are being used to buy gag orders from local governments that are supposed to be protecting the citizens. Check out the City of Union Wind Farm Committee and click on the MOA. It will curl your hair that our tax dollars are being used to force local governments to give up their role of protecting the citizens. This particular city had a vote and the people voted over two to one against having the wind farm built. So much for elected officials representing the people who elected them! Even worse, when, not if they are voted out, the newly elected officials will have their hands tied and they too will be unable to speak for the citizens. THIS HAS TO BE ILLEGAL!!!! Havent these people heard of FREE SPEECH!!!!”

“I am guessing that Horizon Wind is talking about the Elkhorn Wind Farm when they claim 35 jobs. I live here and there are only 2 full time positions at that wind farm. They have some contractors, but it is flat out a lie to say they are employing 35 people full time . If they are, they live somewhere else as they are not here in Union County. It would not be the first time that Horizon Wind has chosen to distort the truth. They said they would not build wind towers within 3 mileas of a sage-grouse lek at the Elkhorn site in their application. Now, in their application to build another adjoining Antelope Ridge Wind farm, they are saying they should be able to build a bunch of wind turbins within 2 miles of the lek as it is already compromised by, guess what, the wind turbines they built there when they built the Elkhorn Wind Farm. Gosh, lets reinforce them for lying to the Energy Facility Siting Counsel by letting them finish destroying this nesting site for a bird that is already endangered.”

“There is a bill in Salem that would require information to be posted online about the BETC and other economic development tax incentives. It’s HB 2825 and it has bipartisan support, and it has a hearing this Thursday. If this bill passes, the dept. of Energy would have to send info to the state transparency website that says who gets the credit, how much they get, what they promised (jobs or energy production) and what was actually produced. We need to know what kind of return on investment we are getting for our tax dollars. I wrote about this a little and other transparency issues here “- http://www.blueoregon.com/2011/02/major-advances-oregon-transparency-and-many-challenges-too/

Because photovoltaic technology is advancing so rapidly, it also means that a factory you build today could be obsolete within 2 or 3 years. It is not unreasonable to assume that solar manufacturing jobs subsidized with government funds may thus only have a lifespan of 2-3 years.

“I think another big problem, however, is that photovoltaics are not a full-fledged energy source, because of their intermittency. I can imagine that within a few years production of photovoltaic panels will vastly outstrip demand, and we will see inventory pile up, prices plummet, and factories go out of business.”

“A whole lot of emotional fertilizer. The end result is the the common citizens is forced to pay higher power fees for these feel good projects. If all these green energy projects are so neat why in the Hell do they need tax credits? More BS from our incompetent legislature. What happens when the wind don’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine?”

“So it’s only after the fact that someone does an actual cost benefit analysis? I only have one thing to say about this, “follow the money!” Figure out not only who got the benefits of the tax credits, but did they influence in any way the politicians who voted for them ie; massive campaign donations or issue advertising that supports candidates position? After all if they weren’t paid off then the only other option is they aren’t smart enough to continue to represent the citizens who voted for them because they couldn’t do a cost benefit analysis before they spend taxpayer money. They certainly didn’t in quite a few of the reported benefits wasted in this article for wind farms...stupid or paid off, what other choice is there?”

December 17, 2009

Senators Feinstein and Merkley Introduce Measure to Spur Renewable Energy Development

-Measure would extend and expand Treasury Department grant program-

Senator Merkley said, “This bill makes sure incentives for renewable energy keep functioning during this recession and keep acting as job-creation engines. It also extends this important job-generating program to utilities that serve many smaller Oregon towns and rural areas.”[...]

[...]Expands the solar investment tax credit to include manufacturing equipment and solar water heaters for commercial and community pools. The bill would allow equipment that makes solar panels to qualify for the 30 percent solar investment tax credit. PROMOTING SOLAR MANUFACTURING IN THIS COUNTRY COULD LEAD TO THOUSANDS OF NEW JOBS, SUCH AS THOSE BEING CREATED AT SOLYNDRA’S NEW FACTORY in Fremont, CA.[...]
http://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2009/12/9e7e21de-5056-8059-7658-a755c455aedf-post

I’m sick and tired of their trumpeting their “creating new jobs” crap. And how many times did they make policy on the basis of Solyndra one might wonder...I’d like to ask them how many jobs did they “create” and how much money it cost via their favoritism toward solar and their buddies - the billionaire socialist venture “capitalists”.