Gehrlicher Solar and Conergy are the companies that have filed for bankruptcy in Germany.
What this means is that the companies ran out of money and tried to borrow more from their investors, who said no. Investors will lend money if they are pretty sure they will be paid back in the future with interest. When business investors say no, it's probably because they don't think that company is going to do well, that is, make enough profit to pay back the loan. (Profit is what's left when all the costs to making a product, solar energy in this case, are subtracted from all the revenue that comes in from customers buying the product.)
It's not only Germany where solar companies are failing. A year ago, Bloomberg reported the demise of Abound Solar which filed bankruptcy in Delaware. They had previously received a $400 million loan guarantee from the federal government. That means that when they could not repay that loan to their investor, American taxpayers actually paid the investor.
If this sounds familiar, think Solyndra: another solar company that had to declare bankruptcy and for which Americans guaranteed a loan of $535 million. The investor doesn't have to be careful about granting the loan if our government says, "Go ahead and give Solyndra the loan even though it doesn't appear to be a good investment. If they can't pay it back, we will pay it."
No comments:
Post a Comment