Solar Company gets $3 billion federal loan guarantee, files for bankruptcy.

Photo above - AI rendering of President Biden's naptime dream, while his aides greenlighted $3 billion in loan guarantees for a solar company that banks refused to touch.

Don't be alarmed. This scam was caught and killed just in time. We taxpayers didn't lose a dime. Wall street investors apparently lost everything, though.

Yes, the Sunnova solar panel loan guarantee made by the White House in 2023 was cancelled by Trump last month. But no, that’s not the reason they went bankrupt. Sunnova’s 2024 financial report admitted it “could offer no assurances [they would] be able to successfully implement any of these [financial] plans or obtain financing at acceptable terms, or at all.” In other words, their business plan was so pathetic nobody would loan them money even WITH federal guarantees.

So why did Sunnova get billions in White House loan guarantees in the first place? I’m guessing someone had a friend who had a friend who knew someone in the west wing of the White House. Let’s not blame Biden personally. It’s been well documented by now that he napped through most of his term. Thousands of bills and pardons and loan guarantees were “auto signed” with a robotic pen while the president dreamed of walking through green fields, with the sun in his face, in Elysium.

Sunnova (NOVA) went public about 5 years ago and immediately soared to $40 a share despite having zero profits. As recently as 2024 shares traded at $10 a share. Today they are 20 cents, and still falling. Wow, that’s like a 99% loss for NOVA investors.

“Solar panel installer” was recently named one of the 3 best job opportunities for the next decade. (#1 was “wind turbine repairman”). Sunnova’s business model was installing rooftop panels with no money down, then hoping to buy any “excess” energy generated at discount prices. While the homeowner made high monthly payments for his shiny new roof.

There’s nothing wrong with rooftop solar. But there are too many companies jockeying for a piece of the pie. It doesn’t take rocket science to buy panels from China and screw them on top of someone’s asphalt shingles. Sunnova's “zero down, high monthly payments” business plan doesn’t work for car sales either. Too many repo’s. Not all EV makers and rooftop solar installers will survive.

I encourage anyone with the guts and persistence and skill to jump in and start a rooftop solar company. Or an EV factory. God bless you, and godspeed! However, I don’t want taxpayers on the hook for every dreamer who thinks his company “can’t fail”. They can and do. Thank goodness the only people who lost money when Sunnova went nova were the fat cats.

I’m just sayin’ . . .

Green Energy Company Picked For Biden Billions Goes Bust

Sunnova - Wikipedia