Another taxpayer-funded energy company files for bankruptcy
By Paul Homewood
h/t Gamecock
From Fox News:
A cutting-edge battery maker that received millions from taxpayers has become the latest government-backed energy firm to file for bankruptcy – reviving the controversy over how stimulus dollars were spent under the last administration.
Seven years after Aquion Energy received a $5.2 million stimulus-tied grant from the federal government, the Pennsylvania company on Wednesday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
“Creating a new electrochemistry and an associated battery platform at commercial scale is extremely complex, time-consuming, and very capital intensive. Despite our best efforts to fund the company and continue to fuel our growth, the Company has been unable to raise the growth capital needed to continue operating as a going concern,” Scott Pearson, Aquion’s outgoing CEO, said in a press release.
The company, which is now seeking a buyer, produces batteries to store solar and renewable energy. It had been touted as a rising star in the energy storage business, even attracting investment from Microsoft founder Bill Gates and millions more in state funding.
Full story here.
This comment by William Yeatman, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute rather says it all:
“Let’s remember that the need for energy storage systems is strictly a consequence of the intermittency of renewable energy sources like solar and wind.
These companies benefit from the grants and indirectly from the inefficiencies of an industry that exists by the grace of political favoritism.”
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
Did I get a buy alert a couple of weeks ago to invest in that company ?
I wonder how much the executives paid themselves in salaries and bonuses – all at the taxpayers’ expense? These companies also hand money back to politicians for providing them with the money in the first place. It’s corruption all the way down (or up).
Too much of our money, doubtless to say. Greed from the subsidy trough. Time it was drained.
The CEI assertion that storage is solely required because of the intermittency of renewable energy sources surely misses the point that it also has a worthwhile role to play in peak shaving for more conventional “baseload” sources. Pumped hydropower for instance. Whether battery or other energy storage technologies can fulfil this role economically remains to be seen.
Strangely we didn’t have any problem in the past with dealing with peak loads so I can’t see why batteries would be necessary.
Right on cue the ad’ on my page here is for lithium batteries! They’re ‘going to replace oil within the next 10 years’, apparently. Fill your boots now while share prices are low, chaps!
http://subscribe.energyandcapital.com/103601?gclid=CKy7pKn-0NICFXUo0wodFYMLlg
Yes best context by putting per household
£56bn = £11bn per year
24mn households so about £500/year/household
oops wrong thread ..already posted in correct one
Strange thing was it was piling out the positive stories until last week
There were more grants/loans in the pipeline..and Bill Gates is an investor.
More details : Hyped battery maker Aquion Energy files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
“Creating a new electrochemistry and an associated battery platform at commercial scale is extremely complex, time-consuming, and very capital intensive,”
So… it’s just the usual “give us more (taxpayer’s) money and we’ll be OK” scam – except that on this occasion, reality has found them out.
A look through their accounts should show how much of the original ‘investor’s money had gone into the trough to pay salaries and expenses etc.
Nothing changes in the unaccountable cloud cuckoo-land of teat-sucking greenies.
If it was such a great idea they would have no problem attracting funding. It isn’t. So they didn’t.
Betcha a few $millions have simply vanished, or are unaccountable! A spare $million or two is very handy in USA, you can live in great comfort for a long and happy life of luxury. ALL this money was WASTED. -Use COAL or GAS for electricity generation, -and you won’t NEED to ‘store it’ in batteries
Reblogged this on Climatism and commented:
““Let’s remember that the need for energy storage systems is strictly a consequence of the intermittency of renewable energy sources like solar and wind.
These companies benefit from the grants and indirectly from the inefficiencies of an industry that exists by the grace of political favoritism.”
And yet, Neanderthal holocene climate man still persists. Spending other people’s money on virtue-signalling ideas that they know don’t work. WTF?
The latest fad for batteries seems to be providing grid stabilisation services.
http://www2.nationalgrid.com/Enhanced-Frequency-Response.aspx