Free Republic

As every ten-year-old who ever got a sweater for a birthday present has been told, “It’s the thought that counts.” That seems to be the guiding principle at the Department of Energy and the California Public Utilities Commission when it comes to solar power. The latest example is the $2.2 billion Ivanpah solar thermal plant in California. (Note: Solar thermal plants do not use solar panels to directly convert sunshine to electricity, they use sunshine to boil water that then drives conventional turbines.) Here’s the story so far, Ivanpah: Is owned by Google, NRG Energy, and Brightsource, who have a...

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into SunEdison to see whether or not the company exaggerated its cash on hand in disclosures last year. The news comes as the solar developer is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. The solar company has seen its stock collapse since last year as mounting debt problems have raised concerns about the company’s ability to keep the lights on. SunEdison’s share price is off by 96 percent since last July. That has translated to a decline of the company’s market capitalization from $10 billion last summer to just $400 million today. SunEdison...

President Obama once praised it as a shining example of America's clean energy future. "With projects like this one," he said at the site of a solar plant just before construction started, "we're putting Americans to work producing clean, home-grown American energy."

As Florida enviros push for their solar amendment, solar’s undesirability goes unmentioned.The important thing to know about solar and wind power, and other so-called “renewable” sources of energy, is that they aren’t necessary. Au the contraire, their dominance of the energy mix would be a disaster for the republic. Solar and wind create trifling amounts of power at a multiple of the cost of power made available by fossil fuels.Increased reliance on pricy power from wind and solar would drive up the overall cost of energy, which in turn would drive up the cost of everything. EVERYTHING! Not just individual...

The recent Chapter 7 bankruptcy and liquidation filing of the Toledo, Ohio-based solar-panel manufacturer Xunlight Corp. has attracted barely any national attention. Maybe it’s gotten to the point — after Solyndra, Evergreen, Abound, and Satcon — that the failure of another government-backed alternative energy company is a dog-bites-man story. It’d be newsworthy if any of them actually ever succeeded. But it’s worth pausing for an autopsy and retrospective on Xunlight, because it’s a great (or terrible, depending on how you look at it) example of how government at all levels — state and federal — and in both parties —...

The largest solar power plant of its type in the world - once promoted as a turning point in green energy - isn't producing as much energy as planned. One of the reasons is as basic as it gets: The sun isn't shining as much as expected.

Ron Klain is a sharp-elbowed Democratic political operative with no medical expertise. Tapping him as “Ebola czar” may not be the president’s best move when, as it is, no one can believe a word the Obama administration says. And that’s not just because Mr. Klain is yet another lobbyist recruited despite Mr. Obama’s vow that his administration would shun lobbyists. Klain was also a central player in the president’s Solyndra fraud, which soaked taxpayers for over half a billion dollars for the benefit of Obama cronies. In Faithless Execution, I recount the Solyndra fraud. It never got the attention...

<p>JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - Mississippi taxpayers may have only an empty Senatobia building and some solar panel equipment to show for nearly $26 million in loans provided to Twin Creeks Technologies.</p> <p>The California-based solar technology firm is liquidating, and a company that bought Twin Creeks' assets does not intend to take over its agreement with Mississippi. The contract called for Twin Creeks to invest at least $132 million and create at least 500 jobs.</p>

Here we go again. Yet another example of the Obama White House's failed attempt to pick winners and losers and doing so by gambling with our our tax dollars, this time to the tune of $6 million in tax credits and $15.6 in grant money from the U.S. Department of Energy. This company, Amonix, is only 14 months old. How in the world did it qualify for that kind of tax dollar windfall without any kind of track record? Oh: Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and Gov. Brian Sandoval were among the political leaders who lauded...

Abound Solar, a company that won a $400 million Energy Department (DOE) loan guarantee in 2010 to manufacture advanced solar panels, is closing and filing for bankruptcy, according to DOE. Abound’s collapse follows last year’s demise of the solar company Solyndra and is sure to feed Republican attacks on White House green energy programs despite support for Abound’s loan from several GOP lawmakers ahead of its approval. The Colorado-based Abound had drawn $70 million of the loan, according to DOE. Abound will close its doors and file for bankruptcy next week, the department said.

NEW YORK (AP) — A shakeout that is rattling the solar panel industry has sent First Solar, once among the industry's biggest and strongest companies, to a big quarterly loss. First Solar Inc. said Thursday that it lost $449 million in the first quarter, The company also announced that its Chief Commercial Officer, James Hughes, would become CEO, replacing interim chief and company founder Mike Ahearn. First Solar said the loss amounted to $5.20 per share..... In the year-ago quarter, the company earned $115 million, or $1.33 per share, on revenue of $567 million. First Solar, along with other makers...

Solar panel installations have fallen by almost 90% in the weeks since the government halved cut the subsidy available, according to Department of Energy and Climate Change figures. The new data lends support to the charge of some in the solar industry that the government cut the subsidy too far and too fast, endangering thousands of jobs. Ministers have defended their actions, saying the scheme they inherited from the previous government was poorly set up and was too costly for the energy customers who ultimately foot the bill.

Green Energy: Another day and another set of layoffs at a Department of Energy-backed solar company and an electric-car maker funded with stimulus dollars. Yet the President wants to double down on green energy. First Solar, a solar energy company that received a $1.46 billion loan guarantee from the Department of Energy, announced Monday it will lay off 2,000 workers worldwide. In December, First Solar laid off 100 employees at a Santa Clara , Calif., plant. The DOE has committed the loan to a project in Riverside County, Calif., expected to create a whopping 15 permanent jobs and 550 construction...

First Solar, a solar energy company that received a $1.46 billion loan guarantee from the Department of Energy, announced today that it will layoff 2,000 workers in the United States and world-wide. The company will "indefinitely idle" four production lines in Malaysia and shutter a plant in Germany. "These actions, combined with other personnel reductions in Europe and the U.S., will reduce First Solar's global workforce by approximately 2,000 positions, about 30 percent of the total," First Solar announced today. "After a thorough analysis, it is clear the European market has deteriorated to the extent that our operations there are...

This is the year that the fake energy provided by our fake president finally collide and go boom. So, get ready for a new round of green bankruptcies, as Europe trims back subsidies for solar companies and taxpayers lose their appetite for subsidizing green power. “The mini-bubble resulting from the rush to cash in on solar subsidies in European and U.S. markets is ending, as feed-in tariffs drop in Europe while loan guarantee and tax credit programs tighten up in the U.S.,” says a new report from Bank of America Merrill Lynch according to CNBC.com.Germany is dialing back subsidies for...

Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D., Nev.) and the Commerce Secretary have extensive ties to fast-tracked green energy programs under investigation by the Senate Budget Committee. Seven solar power companies have received quick approval and little scrutiny from the Department of Interior to lease federal lands in California and Nevada in no-bid processes. Critics have raised questions about the environmental impact of these companies on endangered species.

The Auburn Hills, Mich., company filed for Chapter 11 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Detroit after it was unable to come to terms on an out-of-court deal with its convertible bondholders, according to Michael E. Schostak, director of business development at Energy Conversion Devices.

Environmentalists are torn over the high cost of breaking reliance on fossil fuels. Industrial-scale solar development is well underway in California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. The federal government has furnished more public property to this cause than it has for oil and gas exploration over the last decade — 21 million acres. In the fight against climate change, the Mojave Desert is about to take one for the team. "I have spent my entire career thinking of myself as an advocate on behalf of public lands and acting for their protection," said Johanna Wald, a veteran environmental...

In a year where Solyndra became the face of the solar industry’s chronic failures, even the holiday season could not prevent one last flurry of layoffs in 2011. The Mountain Enterprise (based in Frazier Park, Calif.) reported over the weekend that First Solar, Inc. – which the media sometimes identifies as the largest solar company in the world – laid off half its employees on Friday at its Antelope Valley Solar Ranch One project. The facility has been the subject of controversy in the local community over the effects it will have on land use, wildlife, and water usage....

Idaho Power plans to cut off electricity on Tuesday to plant in Pocatello, Idaho, that makes material for solar energy, because the factory owes $1.9 million in unpaid utility bills. The dispute is with Honolulu-based Hoku Scientific, Inc., which is backed by Chinese financing and enjoys federal and state incentives. Officials for the utility said Idaho Power agreed to hold off until March on collecting the $1.8 million Hoku already owed, providing the company stayed current in its bills. It didn’t. That’s a telltale sign of trouble as thanks to hydroelectric plants and thermal energy, Idaho enjoys some of the...