Solar on the ropes, Court approves Sungevity sale

[Spike]

A Delaware bankruptcy court judge yesterday approved the $50 million sale of the residential solar installer to private equity firm Northern Pacific Group.

Sungevity’s sudden and startling fall from grace came to a quiet end yesterday after a Delaware bankruptcy court approved the sale of its assets to Northern Pacific Group for $50 million. The bankruptcy court's approval of Sungevity's assets to Northern Pacific Group brings to an end a rough quarter for the formerly Top 4 residential solar installation firm.

On March 9, reports emerged that the company had laid off 400 employees in its Missouri and California offices, with rubber paychecks hitting the bank accounts of its employees. Four days later, the company declared bankruptcy and, in what certainly felt like the final death blow, former employees sued the company

https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2017/04...tcy-ends-with-court-approved-50-million-sale/

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Surprised solar customers find themselves with liens

A SORRY PURCHASE: SolarCity panels cover the roof of Jeff Leeds’ home. The panels have been nothing but trouble, he says.

Jeff Leeds says installing SolarCity’s panels on the roof of his home in the Northern California city of El Granada was the sorriest day of his life.

Agreeing to the company’s 20-year lease was like partnering with the devil, he claims. He says he has endured skyrocketing electric bills, installation of an inferior system and contract violations because SolarCity refuses to clean the panels or to provide a payment for his system’s poor performance.

The latest surprise: a notice from his bank telling him that SolarCity had placed a lien on his home, and that his equity line of credit application could not proceed until the lien was removed.

SolarCity say it’s not a lien, but a “fixture filing” that stakes the company’s claim to the panels, which it owns if consumers have taken part in its popular lease program. Owning the solar electricity-generating system allows SolarCity to claim lucrative state and federal subsidies available only to system owners. SolarCity has received approximately $500 million in tax subsidies and grants over the years.

http://watchdog.org/212170/surprise-solar-liens/

 

[21STEELERS21]

https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/04/whats-next-for-solar-energy/

Spike, you confuse the performance of businesses with the performance of the technology. Solar use is up 5700% in last 15 years.
It has just scratched the surface of where it is going. The battery storage revolution has not even started yet. Maybe your related
to that guy in the 1890's who said everything had already been invented.

 

[Ron Burgundy]

except that the only way to make solar relatively affordable is to subsidize it and make the price artificially low while making the cost of fossil fuels artificially high.

 

[Spike]

except that the only way to make solar relatively affordable is to subsidize it and make the price artificially low while making the cost of fossil fuels artificially high.

States aren't buying it


"We Were Booming and Now We're Dead" — How Nevada's Solar Industry Bright Spot Turned Dark

Louise Helton, owner of One Sun Solar Electric in Las Vegas, says that since January her company is doing more work removing solar panels from rooftops than installing them.

But at least she’s still in business, unlike many solar entrepreneurs in Nevada. She’s had to diversify into LED lighting installation and other sources of income.

“During the recession, rooftop solar was the bright spot in the Nevada economy,” Helton tells DeSmog. “We were booming. And now we’re dead.”

It was a decision by the Public Utility Commission of Nevada (PUCN) in December that delivered a fatal blow to rooftop solar in the sunniest state in the U.S.

By removing a key incentive for rooftop solar customers — net metering — the PUC made it prohibitively expensive for existing and future solar customers to use solar panels to generate part or all or their electricity needs.

And it turned electricity-generating rooftop panels from a net-plus for homeowners to a technological albatross, at least for the near future.

https://www.desmogblog.com/2016/05/...vada-s-solar-industry-bright-spot-turned-dark

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boondoggle


Massive Solar Power Plant Emits 46,000 Tons of CO2

The plant is the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility, a behemoth that uses hundreds of thousands of mirrors spread out over more than five square miles of the Mojave Desert. The mirrors all aim at the tops of three 459-foot towers, where the heat boils water in tanks held there, which generates steam to turn the electricity-producing turbines.

But it turns out that Ivanpah isn't so squeaky clean after all.

According to the Press Enterprise in Riverside, Calif. , Ivanpah emits enough CO2 that it will "be required to participate in the state's cap-and-trade program to reduce carbon emissions."

In its first year, Ivanpah emitted 46,000 metric tons of CO2. That's about as much as a Frito Lay plant in Bakersfield emits.

http://www.investors.com/politics/commentary/ivanpah-solar-plan-emits-greenhouse-gases/