posted October 18, 2012 06:30 PM            

Goodbye Satcom Technology

Another DOE-Backed Solar Company Goes Bankrupt
Lachlan Markay
October 18, 2012

...Satcon is the second DOE-backed green energy company to declare bankruptcy this week. As Scribe’s Michael Sandoval reported on Tuesday, electric vehicle battery manufacturer A123 Systems filed for Chapter 11 despite receiving a $249 million DOE grant.

A123 and Satcon mark the latest in a long line of taxpayer-funded green energy failures. Heritage’s Ashe Schow lays out the full list in a new report on the Foundry.

posted October 18, 2012 06:41 PM            

It is no secret that President Obama’s and green-energy supporters’ (from both parties) foray into venture capitalism has not gone well. But the extent of its failure has been largely ignored by the press. Sure, single instances garner attention as they happen, but they ignore past failures in order to make it seem like a rare case.

The truth is that the problem is widespread. The government’s picking winners and losers in the energy market has cost taxpayers billions of dollars, and the rate of failure, cronyism, and corruption at the companies receiving the subsidies is substantial. The fact that some companies are not under financial duress does not make the policy a success. It simply means that our taxpayer dollars subsidized companies that would’ve found the financial support in the private market.

So far, 36 companies that have received federal support from taxpayers have either gone bankrupt or are laying off workers and are heading for bankruptcy. This list includes only those companies that received federal money from the Obama Administration’s Department of Energy. The amount of money indicated does not reflect how much was actually received or spent but how much was offered. The amount also does not include other state, local, and federal tax credits and subsidies, which push the amount of money these companies have received from taxpayers even higher.

The complete list of faltering or bankrupt green-energy companies:

1.Evergreen Solar ($24 million)*
2.SpectraWatt ($500,000)*
3.Solyndra ($535 million)*
4.Beacon Power ($69 million)*
5.AES’s subsidiary Eastern Energy ($17.1 million)
6.Nevada Geothermal ($98.5 million)
7.SunPower ($1.5 billion)
8.First Solar ($1.46 billion)
9.Babcock and Brown ($178 million)
10.EnerDel’s subsidiary Ener1 ($118.5 million)*
11.Amonix ($5.9 million)
12.National Renewable Energy Lab ($200 million)
13.Fisker Automotive ($528 million)
14.Abound Solar ($374 million)*
15.A123 Systems ($279 million)*
16.Willard and Kelsey Solar Group ($6 million)
17.Johnson Controls ($299 million)
18.Schneider Electric ($86 million)
19.Brightsource ($1.6 billion)
20.ECOtality ($126.2 million)
21.Raser Technologies ($33 million)*
22.Energy Conversion Devices ($13.3 million)*
23.Mountain Plaza, Inc. ($2 million)*
24.Olsen’s Crop Service and Olsen’s Mills Acquisition Company ($10 million)*
25.Range Fuels ($80 million)*
26.Thompson River Power ($6.4 million)*
27.Stirling Energy Systems ($7 million)*
28.LSP Energy ($2.1 billion)*
29.UniSolar ($100 million)*
30.Azure Dynamics ($120 million)*
31.GreenVolts ($500,000)
32.Vestas ($50 million)
33.LG Chem’s subsidiary Compact Power ($150 million)
34.Nordic Windpower ($16 million)*
35.Navistar ($10 million)
36.Satcon ($3 million)*
*Denotes companies that have filed for bankruptcy.

The problem begins with the issue of government picking winners and losers in the first place. Venture capitalist firms exist for this very reason, and they choose what to invest in by looking at companies’ business models and deciding if they are worthy. When the government plays venture capitalist, it tends to reward companies that are connected to the policymakers themselves or because it sounds nice to “invest” in green energy.

posted October 23, 2012 04:02 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by jwhop:
How many is that now? Good thing O'Bomber didn't invest his own money or he'd be busted by now. Good for O'Bomber, bad for US Taxpayers whose money O'Bomber did invest.

Goodbye Satcom Technology

[b]Another DOE-Backed Solar Company Goes Bankrupt
Lachlan Markay
October 18, 2012

...Satcon is the second DOE-backed green energy company to declare bankruptcy this week. As Scribe’s Michael Sandoval reported on Tuesday, electric vehicle battery manufacturer A123 Systems filed for Chapter 11 despite receiving a $249 million DOE grant.

A123 and Satcon mark the latest in a long line of taxpayer-funded green energy failures. Heritage’s Ashe Schow lays out the full list in a new report on the Foundry.

http://blog.heritage.org/2012/10/18/another-doe-backed-solar-company-goes-bankrupt/ [/B]

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Will he EVER be held accountable for all his idiotic schemes

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Passion, Lust, Desire. Check out my journal

posted October 23, 2012 04:28 PM            

Yes he will, yes he will, yes he will...on November 6th, 2012.

posted October 30, 2012 01:28 PM            

Over the last year or so, Republicans have woven a tale of collapse and futility around clean energy. Each setback for the industry, each bankruptcy or refinancing, is met with open glee, plastered all over Fox News for weeks on end. In the first presidential debate, Mitt Romney said to Obama, “you don’t just the pick the winners and losers — you pick the losers.”
I can’t recall ever seeing a major political party rooting for the failure of a growing American industry like this.

posted October 30, 2012 01:58 PM            

I have another phrase for it, but I don't use that language on the internets

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posted October 30, 2012 02:56 PM            

Next, republicans will blame the "Frankenstorm" on Obama..

These failed companies lost out to cheaper companies in China, and probably to better Solar Technology in California itself which is going to make present Solar Photovoltaic Cell Technology pathetically obsolete.

New Solar "Crystal" type panels and "Ink" type panels are 75% cheaper, and will help eliminate Nuclear Energy in the medium term, and probably eliminate fossil fuels in the next 2 decades, judging by Germany's success with old Solar Tech.

Another clean tech which will destroy many a fossil fuel company is biotechnology based Hydrogen generators from water. Biological Splitting of water to hydrogen and oxygen.
Investment here has been less than a few million dollars, imagine what a billion dollars here will do. Romney will not hesitate to invest in such tech himself, he loves his profits. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biohydrogen_reactor

posted October 30, 2012 06:23 PM            

Oh really?

This is a major league scandal in itself. It's an even bigger scandal when it's known Energy dept career employees opposed some of those loans and guarantees on the basis of incomplete data in some cases and high risk in others. It's an even bigger scandal that those same risky loans and guarantees defaulted and the companies went bankrupt. The body count is up to about 36 and counting.

As Romney said, O'Bomber is good at picking losers but Romney was being too kind.

The political and financial corruption involved in picking these losers is astounding and the finger points straight at Barack Hussein O'Bomber.

You are wrong on all counts. O'Bomber sure as hell can be, should be and is being blamed and rightfully so.

Wind and Solar are not competitive with oil, natural gas and coal to produce electricity and never will be. O'Bomber would have to bankrupt the coal companies, bankrupt coal fired electric plants and triple the price of oil and natural gas for wind and solar to be competitive.

posted October 31, 2012 10:58 AM            

That political and financial corruption is compounded when it's known O'Bomber overrode the recommendations of career Dept of Energy officials and directed his appointees to make the loans and guarantees anyway.

Only the usual suspects and O'Bomber Kool-Aid swillers who have their heads up O'Bomber's ass would think think this isn't exactly what it looks like. Political and financial corruption on the part of their little Marxist Messiah O'Bomber.

"It's not a scandal at all. We've been over that idea. It's unfounded. You are wrong on all counts."...acoustic

You continue to believe you can string together a series of words which constitute nothing more than bovid excrement and have it accepted as a valid response to facts. Only in your little bubble world of leftist unreality acoustic but not in the real world.

Hahahaha, imagine O'Bomber throwing more than $370 million in taxpayer money to his Billionaire buddy/contributor Pat Stryker at Abound Solar which produced solar panels which don't work in the sun! Get it acoustic? Solar panels" which don't work in the sun!

Btw, there's a criminal investigation under way for Abound Solar. Not a federal criminal investigation by the minions of O'Bomber in the Executive Branch..ie., the utterly corrupt Eric Holder at the Justice Dept, but a state criminal investigation.

In the meantime, the common theme running through O'Bomber's Solar, Wind and Battery losers continues.

Government loans and/or guarantees were made to O'Bomber's big campaign contributors

They went bankrupt

This is Venture Capitalism...Marxist style.

We prefer American style Venture Capitalism. Invest and risk your own damned money.

posted October 31, 2012 02:16 PM            

quote:

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All the rational people in America would think that giving billions in taxpayer money to individuals who either run or are the biggest investors in so called green energy companies who also were and/or are O'Bomber's biggest campaign contributors...is political and financial corruption.

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Except for those rational people charged with investigating these charges who officially found otherwise.

quote:

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You continue to believe you can string together a series of words which constitute nothing more than bovid excrement and have it accepted as a valid response to facts. Only in your little bubble world of leftist unreality acoustic but not in the real world.

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No. That is the real world. We have, in fact, been over this before. You were found wrong as usual.

quote:

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Btw, there's a criminal investigation under way for Abound Solar. Not a federal criminal investigation by the minions of O'Bomber in the Executive Branch..ie., the utterly corrupt Eric Holder at the Justice Dept, but a state criminal investigation.

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Oooh...I'm so scared for Obama.