When Solyndra filed for bankruptcy forcing US taxpayers to swallow a $500 million loss, the public outcry caused some real problems for the solar industry and its champion, the Obama administration. The noise could get a lot louder if Solar Trust of America LLC has already committed the $2.1 billion in federal loan guarantees that it received to build the world’s largest solar thermal plant in the southern California desert near Blythe. Solar Trust filed for bankruptcy yesterday.
Solar Millenium, Solar Trust’s Germany-based majority owner, filed for bankruptcy last December. Solar Millenium wanted to sell the Blythe project to another German outfit, solarhybrid AG, but solarhybrid went belly-up too.
In its filing yesterday, Solar Trust revealed that it was two months behind on its rent and would be unable to pay some bills that are expected to come in very soon.
According to Bloomberg News, Solar Trust’s bankruptcy filing listed $100 million in assets and $500 million in debt, so it appears that taxpayer dollars might be safe — well, at least 1.6 billion of the 2.1 billion taxpayer dollars.
Paul Ausick
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