Solar-power equipment manufacturer Stirling Energy Systems Inc. has filed for bankruptcy, adding to a wave of troubles in the solar industry amid soft demand, falling prices and difficulty raising money.
Solar-power equipment manufacturer Stirling Energy Systems Inc. has
filed for bankruptcy, adding to a wave of troubles in the solar industry amid
soft demand, falling prices and difficulty raising money.
Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Stirling Energy developed equipment for two solar-power
plants designed to convert heat from the sun into electricity. Neither of the
plants were able to obtain government loan guarantees, although both were sited
on public land in
California
and
obtained fast-track construction permits from the Obama administration.
Stirling
filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last
Friday, after it failed to find a buyer for the company, according to documents
filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in
Delaware
.
The filing is the latest in a string of
U.S.
solar
company bankruptcies, as soft global demand for solar power, falling prices and
a glut of solar panels from
Asia
have
hammered manufacturers.
Earlier this month,
California
solar-panel maker Solyndra Inc. filed for bankruptcy after receiving more than
$500 million in federal government assistance. The company is also the subject
of numerous criminal and congressional investigations. In August, two
U.S.
solar
companies--Evergreen Solar Inc. and start-up Spectrawatt Inc.--filed for
bankruptcy protection, citing falling solar-panel prices and fierce competition
from well-financed Chinese rivals.
Signs of trouble at
Stirling
, once a rising star in
California
's
growing renewable-energy market, emerged in December, after its largest
investor, Dublin-based NTR PLC, said that difficulties at
Stirling
and
another of its renewable-energy units led to a EUR148 million write-down. In
August, NTR wrote down another EUR280.2 million in losses from
Stirling
and
solar development unit Tessera Solar, and said that it was unable to find
third-party investors to infuse capital into the companies.
Meanwhile, Tessera, which designed two power plants to run on
Stirling
's
technology, wasn't able to obtain government loan guarantees for the projects. In
December, Edison International's (EIX) southern
California
utility terminated its contract with Tessera to purchase the output from one of
the plants, the 663-megawatt Calico Solar plant.
Tessera sold Calico Solar to developer K Road Power, which redesigned the
project to use primarily solar panels to generate electricity, but also
included a portion that would use
Stirling
's
technology. An amended license to build the facility was still pending at the
California Energy Commission.
In February, Tessera sold the second solar-power project, called Imperial
Valley Solar, to AES Solar, a joint venture owned by AES Corp. (AES) and
private equity firm Riverstone Holdings LLC. But AES abandoned that project
after Sempra Energy's (SRE) San Diego Gas & Electric utility terminated its
contract to purchase the output from the facility, according to
California
government records.
San Diego Gas & Electric canceled the contract after AES changed the
technology and some of the contract terms, said Stephanie Donovan, an SDG&E
spokeswoman. "It wasn't going to work out for us," Donovan said.
Spokeswomen at AES Solar declined to comment.
Just last October, the Imperial Valley Solar project, which was to be built on
public land in
California
and
create 900 construction jobs, obtained a key federal permit, to much fanfare.
At the time, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the project would
"advance the president's agenda for stimulating investment in cutting-edge
technology, creating jobs for American workers, and promoting clean energy for
American homes, businesses and industry."
Telephone calls to
Stirling
and NTR weren't immediately
returned.
K Road Power is proceeding with development of the Calico Solar project,
although the company was "still digesting the Stirling bankruptcy"
and had "not made any final decisions yet" on how to proceed with the
portion of the facility that was to use Stirling's technology, Dan O'Shea, a
senior vice president at New York-based K Road, said Thursday.
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