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The World's Largest Renewable Energy Developer Could Go Broke (huffingtonpost.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Huffington Post: There is a "substantial risk" that SunEdison may file for bankruptcy, the world's largest renewable energy developer said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday. The company's fall isn't a referendum on the solar industry as a whole, as much as it is on SunEdison's aggressive growth strategy fueled by excessive debt and financial engineering, analysts say. SunEdison "just thought they were smarter than everyone else," said David Levine, the founder and CEO of Geostellar, a solar energy marketplace that has done deals with the company.
SunEdison loaded up a total of $11 billion in debt to develop or acquire renewable energy projects. The company's shares have fallen steeply since they hit a high of $30 in July. They were at just $1.26 before the filing. The stock immediately dropped another 40 percent when the market opened after the filing, and the company was trading at just $0.59 by Tuesday lunchtime.

4 of 292 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Regardless of the reasons... by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yes, Solyndra and this - the evidence that the market works and bad business plans properly fail.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  2. Re:Regardless of the reasons... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...People are gonna claim it's proof that renewables don't work.

    As an electrical engineer that works for a company that installs solar systems, they don't work. Well, when you add the government subsidies, that we all pay for in taxes, they're only bad instead of horrible.

  3. Re:Regardless of the reasons... by EEPROMS · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This has nothing to do with solar panels, in this case the directors (like many retarded MBA's coming out of US universities) went with the 5 year insane growth model that just doesn't work with solar power production. If I was going to blame anyone it would be US universities training students to be bad business managers.

  4. Re: Regardless of the reasons... by religionofpeas · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Price of solar panels has dropped by more than 60% in the last decade, and the end is not in sight. Pretty soon the system you paid with tax breaks will cost less new without tax breaks. On the other hand, price of oil, coal and gas will go up in the future.