Some clean-energy firms found U.S. loan-guarantee program a bad bet
Steven Mufson and Carol D. Leonnig
"Uwe T. Schmidt, chief executive of Solar Trust, says he is a fan of the Energy Department's loan-guarantee program. He met with Energy Secretary Steven Chu and the program's director, Jonathan Silver, when his company was seeking support for a 1,000-megawatt solar thermal plant it wanted to build in the California desert in Riverside County.
"But when the department offered him a $2.1 billion loan guarantee, Schmidt turned it down. It would have been one of the largest stimulus-funded clean-technology projects, and Solar Trust had been negotiating the deal for roughly a year. But Schmidt decided it was too risky.
"I'm now famous for getting the largest loan guarantee and then turning it down, Schmidt said. For very sound business reasons, we opted not to go forward."
Pour citer cette ressource :
"Some clean-energy firms found U.S. loan-guarantee program a bad bet", La Clé des Langues [en ligne], Lyon, ENS de LYON/DGESCO (ISSN 2107-7029), septembre 2011. Consulté le 02/12/2023. URL: https://cle.ens-lyon.fr/anglais/archives/archives-revue-de-presse/some-clean-energy-firms-found-u-s-loan-guarantee-program-a-bad-bet