Yet another example of what dumping enormous amounts of taxpayer money into an industry not ready for prime time brings
FAILED OREGON SOLAR EQUIPMENT PLANT LEAVES BEHIND MILLIONS IN TAXPAYER LOSSES
A multi-year effort by federal, state, and local agencies to prop up an Oregon solar-panel manufacturer has ended in a shuttered factory, millions of taxpayer dollars down the drain, and a heavily polluted manufacturing site.
In 2010 SoloPower Systems (SoloPower) claimed it could manufacture “flexible†solar PV cells and modules that were light and thin enough to be installed on buildings that couldn’t support regular solar panels. Promising to employ hundreds of people at its 225,000-square-foot manufacturing plant, SoloPower attracted millions of dollars in loans and tax credits from government agencies.
In 2010 the U.S. Department of Energy loaned SoloPower $10 million. Business Oregon, a state agency, granted SoloPower $20 million in tax credits. The City of Portland agreed to cover half of SoloPower’s debt to the state, provided the solar-panel factory was located within the city’s limits, while Multnomah County, where Portland is located, declared the company’s factory site was in an enterprise zone, freeing the company from paying property taxes as long as it met certain job creation requirements.
By August 2011, the Obama administration increased is commitment to the project, furnishing $197 million in DOE loan guarantees to the company, and the California Energy Commission loaned the company nearly $5 million.
And what happened?
In April 2013, the company shut down its factory and laid off most of its workforce. By July 2013 it stopped making payments on its state loans and shortly thereafter, California sued the company for failing to make payments on its loan.
Subsequently, the U.S. Energy Department withdrew its $197 million in loan guarantees, and in the fall of 2017, the Trump Energy Department declared SoloPower in default of its original $10 million loan.
And the local, state, and federal taxpayers will not see the money for the loans returned. Even better, the taxpayers are on the hook for more
In an audit of the company Oregon’s Secretary of State pointed out although “Multnomah County had the legal right to seize the borrower’s equipment for delinquent taxes,†it was unlikely to do so because the plant was heavily polluted with cadmium and hydrochloric acid.
Seizing the equipment may not be an option given the level of pollution at the plant.
This stuff is very caustic,†Michael Vaughn, Multnomah County accessor told Oregon Live. “And there’s lots of it. It’s one big mess.â€
Cleaning up the plant is estimated to cost more than $500,000.
It would have been better had Obama dumped tons of federal money into research and development, rather than just into businesses that said that they could make this work. Most of the recipients seem to have failed. But, hey, Obama had lots of campaign donors to hook up.
