Not a Great Energy Investment....

[flacaltenn]

Why is a company with severe manufacturing quality issues, slowing world sales and recent plant closings and layoffs getting BILLIONS in US Loan Guaranties and MILLIONS in hard cash handouts?

It's probably because of WHO is invested in this company and the fact that Obama NEEDS a success in the renewable handouts he's addicted to..

U.S. Pays First Solar To Buy Its Own Panels As Europe Scales Back Subsidies

First Solar is an Arizona-based manufacturer of solar panels. In 2010, the Obama administration awarded the company $16.3 million to expand its factory in Ohio — a subsidy Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland touted in his failed re-election bid that year.

Five weeks before the 2010 election, Strickland announced more than a million dollars in job training grants to First Solar. The Ohio Department of Development also lent First Solar $5 million, and the state’s Air Quality Development Authority gave the company an additional $10 million loan.

After First Solar pocketed this $17.3 million in government grants and $15 million in government loans, Ex-Im entered the scene.

In September 2011, Ex-Im <export-import bank> approved $455.7 million in loan guarantees to subsidize the sale of solar panels to two wind farms in Canada. That means if the wind farm ever defaults, the taxpayers pick up the tab, ensuring First Solar gets paid.

But the buyer, in this case, was First Solar.

A small corporation called St. Clair Solar owned the wind farm and was the Canadian company buying First Solar&#8217;s panels. But St. Clair Solar was a wholly owned subsidiary of First Solar. So, basically, First Solar was shipping its own solar panels from Ohio to a solar farm it owned in Canada, and the U.S. taxpayers were subsidizing this &#8220;export.&#8221;

Meanwhile from the Washington Post, we learn that across Europe, countries are cutting once-lavish subsidies to solar industries. Why? Because solar power is highly inefficient and cannot survive without the subsidies.
***

The subsidies for renewable energy cost German consumers about $14 a month for a family of four. Companies that generate renewable energy get a guaranteed above-market rate for 20 years. In Schlicht&#8217;s case, the owner of the building will get a cut of the proceeds in exchange for giving over part of the roof to Geosol.

Though solar energy supplied 3.1% of Germany&#8217;s electricity needs in 2011 &#8212; hampered in part by the country&#8217;s famously dreary weather &#8212; the industry consumed closer to half of the overall renewable subsidies, which also support other energy sources such as wind and biomass. It&#8217;s something to bear in mind the next time a U.S. politician or policy wonk says we should learn from the policies of our European cousins. We should, including their mistakes.

Follow Sean Higgins on Twitter: @SeanGHiggins

So the CANADIANS are getting a solar plant backed and paid for by US taxpayers if the Shaky First Solar bites the dust. Why is tossing all this money at First Solar a very risky move? Has nothing to do with cheap Chinese imports, it's mostly internal to the company.

First Solar replacing more solar panels


Tempe-based First Solar Inc. said this week it is making more warranty replacements of its solar panels in hot climates than expected, just as it is building billions of dollars worth of power plants in the desert Southwest.


First Solar took a $37 million fourth-quarter charge to set aside money to handle potential warranty claims related to temperature, and plans on setting aside a larger portion of its sales going forward to cover warranty expenses.Officials said the discovery occurred as First Solar is shifting its business from overcast and even cool markets in Germany, Italy, France and Spain to places like California, Arizona, India, China and Australia.

It is common knowledge in the solar industry that solar panels, both the traditional crystal-silicon panels and the "thin-film" panels that First Solar makes, produce less electricity the hotter it gets. The problem is not that they don't produce electricity at all in extreme heat, just that their maximum output decreases as the temperature increases.


First Solar is building projects in some of the hottest places in the nation, including Yuma County, where the company is building a 290-megawatt power plant.

The Agua Caliente plant snared a $967 million loan from the Federal Financing Bank, and the loan is guaranteed through the U.S. Energy Department.

First Solar also has a 550-megawatt plant named Desert Sunlight underway in Riverside County, Calif. that got $1.46 billion in loans from an investor group, and the Energy Department is partially guaranteeing those funds.

And it has a 230-megawatt plant, Antelope Valley Solar Ranch, underway in Los Angeles County, Calif., that got a $646 million loan guarantee.

A First Solar official said he was confident the Energy Department funded projects were not at risk because of the heat issues.

"We are fully confident the plants are designed robustly to meet their performance targets," spokesman Ted Meyer said.

First solar spent $125.8 million in the last quarter replacing faulty panels it made in 2008 and 2009, but most of those went to temperate places in Europe, and were not likely related to temperature, officials said. The company went beyond its warranty obligations replacing those panels, officials said. First Solar officials said their problems have been with older solar panel models and that they have moved on to the next generation of solar panels.

Analyst Chris Kettenmann of Miller Tabak and Co. asked company executives for more details on the heat-related problems, but did't get many.

"Well, at this time, we don't have a lot of data," interim CEO Michael Ahearn said.

He said that it is known that solar panels degrade faster in hot climates, and the company tests its panels for extreme heat.

"We just started really shifting the mix into hotter climates in the last couple years," he said. "So we'll have to continue to reevaluate it as we see results, get more data."

Read more: First Solar replacing more solar panels

Germany a cool-weather country has no more loot for them so they a take a product that has had large THERMAL PROBLEMS to 3 desert installations in the US..

What could go wrong?? It's ONLY $3Bill.. Tomorrow -- a list of the POLITICAL connections you need to get a deal like this one....

 

[flacaltenn]

Did I mention we're backing a company that has a huge class action suit against them from stockholders who are contending the company is HIDING the magnitude of their "quality" issues?

Here's the map of connections to the politicians you need to buy off..

The First Solar Swindle Obama

First Solar&#8217;s CEO has admitted to selling more than 700,000 shares of his own stock netting him $68.5 million&#8212;though claiming that the company &#8220;remains financially strong and well positioned to execute through the current market environment.&#8221; HumanEvents.com reports &#8220;between 2008 and 2012&#8211;&#8211;a period when First Solar&#8217;s stock value dropped by almost 95 percent&#8211;&#8211;Ahearn sold over $450 million of his own company&#8217;s stock.&#8221;

In Throw Them All Out, Peter Schweizer reports on First Solar investor Paul Tudor Jones, who was a 2008 Obama bundler, and First Solar CEO Michael Ahearn, who &#8220;gives generously (and exclusively) to Democrats.&#8221;

Ted Turner Billionaire Investor
From Throw Them All Out: &#8220;The biggest investors [in First Solar] include billionaire Ted Turner, a big financial backer of Obama&#8217;s 2008 campaign.&#8221;

Paul Tudor Jones Billionaire Investor
&#8220;Another Obama bundler, also owns a stake in First Solar.&#8221;

Whitney Tilson Ultra-wealthy Obama Supporter
Obama ally and a member of &#8220;Patriotic Millionaires&#8221; (a group of wealthy Obama supporters backing the president&#8217;s effort to raise taxes on high-earners), is &#8220;Ultra-wealthy Obama supporter Whitney Tilson,&#8221; reports the Washington Free Beacon. It turns out that &#8220;One of the few &#8216;winners&#8217; in Tilson&#8217;s portfolio was his short position in First Solar, a company on the brink of collapse, despite receiving more than $3 billion in federal loan guarantees from the Obama administration.&#8221;

Jose Villarreal First Solar board member
Also a board member for the Center for American Progress, a left-wing think tank, closely tied to the administration, which lobbied for green energy loans.


<< A few of the current First Solar projects under $3Bill in loans guaranteed by you... >>

Exelon Corp.
Antelope Valley Solar Ranch, California&#8212;Rating BBB- by Fitch, September 2011, DOE loan for $646 million&#8211;&#8211;was purchased by Exelon Corp, yet First Solar, which developed the project, &#8220;will build, operate, and maintain the project.&#8221; Exelon Corp. was another 2008 Obama donor, and the Antelope Valley Solar Ranch project has a 25-year purchase power agreement from PG&E as well.

During Obama&#8217;s run for the presidency, Exelon&#8217;s employees continued to give, contributing at least $200,000 during Obama&#8217;s 2008 campaign. Exelon board member John Rogers Jr. was a top Obama bundler, hauling in at least $500,000. Bloomberg reported that former Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel worked on the $8.2 billion merger that created Exelon in 2000, and former senior adviser David Axelrod had ownership in a consulting business that had Exelon as a client.

NextEra Energy
Desert Sunlight, California&#8211;&#8211;Rating BBB, by Fitch; September 2011, DOE loan for $1.2 billion&#8212;was sold to NextEra Energy Resources, LLC, the competitive energy subsidiary of NextEra Energy, Inc. and GE Energy Financial Services. Yet, the September announcement also states that &#8220;First Solar will continue to build and subsequently operate and maintain the project under separate agreements.&#8221; Both CEO's are on President Obama's Job Council, Lewis Hay of NextEra Energy and Jeffrey Immelt of GE (another top Obama donor, donating $529,855 to his 2008 campaign). GE has raked in over $3 billion of stimulus money, and counting.

Sherry Barrat, a director at NextEra, is also Vice Chairman of Northern Trust, the company that once owned the Obamas&#8217; house.

NRG Energy
Agua Caliente, Arizona&#8211;&#8211;Rating BB+ by Fitch, August 2011, DOE loan for $967 million&#8211;&#8211;was purchased from First Solar by NRG Solar, LLC, and a subsidiary of NRG Energy. The plant would supply power to PG&E, and be made with panels from the Tempe-based First Solar Inc. Billionaire George Soros, a 2008 Obama donor, who &#8220;gave advice and direction on how President Obama should allocate so-called stimulus money in a series of regular private meetings and consultations with White House senior advisers,&#8221; owns more than half a million shares of NRG Energy.

No pressure -- no influence -- no problem.... The iceberg is dead ahead... Investors selling short, the CEO bails out on his stock, stockholders suing for transparency..

Ring the pizza place, put your feet up -- This won't take long...

 

[B. Kidd]

Yup, F-Tenn!

Just one more real-world reason to NOT vote for Obie.

 

[flacaltenn]

Obviously there's no interest in this vital part of the Obama Renewable double-down.. Otherwise, we'd have people defending this kind of screwy "investment" in solar.

OK -- let's start a pool..

When is this gonna unravel? The company is mortally weak. Still is fighting warranty problems and stockholders, they've lost the massive market in Europe because of subsidy cuts and poor performance of solar in Germany. The Canada installation isn't gonna make a profit. (Solar in Canada????)

If they haven't fixed the heat problems with thin film -- I give it one year.

If they have fixed the problems, maybe 3 yrs before the taxpayers eat those installations.

Obama probably isn't gonna be around -- but if he IS --- he'll have much bigger problems by then.
The FSLR stock is SOARING after being left for dead. All on the basis of this "good" news about all the Govt bucks.

They're gonna PUMP IT UP so that the Goldman Sachs crowd and those Obama funders can gracefully bail before it all comes apart at the seams. Creating a Golden Carpet for the connected investors to exit.

 

[B. Kidd]

If ENERGY is such a paramount issue, and it is, why hasn't Obie put in place an outlined, coherent energy plan for the U.S., over 31/2 years in to his admin..?
That is an essential question, and Romney-ites should take notice.

 

[flacaltenn]

If ENERGY is such a paramount issue, and it is, why hasn't Obie put in place an outlined, coherent energy plan for the U.S., over 31/2 years in to his admin..?
That is an essential question, and Romney-ites should take notice.

He THINKS he has.. Clearly the Green Jobs brainfart is the crowning jewel of his economic plan. Except that it's largely leveraged by defining antique restoration as green and handing out mountains of cash to "renewables" and trying to crush anything to do with fossil energy.. That's the plan -- Stan.. And when at first you don't succeed ,,,,,,,,,, Does anyone really remember Al Gores plan to save America from Globalization? Anyone? the Internet SuperHiway? Similiar brainfart = square peg --->> round hole.. For some reason the left feels compelled to play Central Planning to the economy rather than facilitator.. Let Romney run with THAT as well. For a Venture Capital guy, he's not being covered by the press if he's talking at all about such ridiculous leftist notions..

There is an overall fraud being perpetrated by the fact that many things on the list of Clean, Green, Renewables are not CLEAN and not GREEN. Like Geothermal and Biomass and Hydro and most Biofuels. Which leaves 2 techs that are not really "alternatives". Wind and Solar. They are SUPPLEMENTS to existing RELIABLE grid power. And they will never be economical viable when the true cost of idling a Nat Gas plant just to take 40 minutes of wind onto the grid is ACTUALLY ADDED to the cost. That's a large part of the fraud. The other part is that Solar and Wind were Supposed to be cute and cuddly and small. Everything that BIG FOSSIL is not.. Except that Obama has made the Wind/Solar industries the same cesspool of crony corruption as the oil/gas industry has become.