Solar Company That Received $3 Billion Biden Loan Warns It Might Go Bankrupt
A politically connected solar company says it has “substantial doubt” it can stay in business, a little over a year after obtaining a $3 billion loan from the Biden administration.
Sunnova Energy said on Monday that its current finances are “not sufficient to meet obligations and fund operations for a period of at least one year from the date we issue our consolidated financial statements without implementing additional measures.”
“Therefore, substantial doubt exists regarding our ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least one year from the date we issue our consolidated financial statements,” the company said in a statement on Monday.
Sunnova’s stock plunged over 70 percent following its announcement, according to Bloomberg.
The news comes a year and a half after the Biden administration’s Department of Energy Loan Programs Office closed on a $3 billion loan with the solar company—the largest federal loan to a solar company in history.
Sunnova’s ties to Biden administration officials and the history of consumer complaints against the company drew scrutiny and led to investigations by Republican lawmakers.
Biden’s head of the DOE loan office, Jigar Shah, had close ties with Sunnova board director Anne Slaughter Andrew, who also sat on the board of a nonprofit trade group that was founded by Shah, the Washington Free Beacon reported in October 2023.
Sunnova’s business practices have come under scrutiny as well. The company has been accused of scamming dementia patients on their deathbeds into signing five-figure, multi-decade solar panel leases, according to interviews and state consumer complaint records obtained by the Free Beacon in November 2023.
The Free Beacon reviewed at least 50 consumer complaints filed against Sunnova in Texas since 2022. Multiple complaints alleged that Sunnova sales representatives persuaded elderly dementia patients, some on their deathbeds, to enter lengthy solar panel leases.
