SOLYNDRA WAS TO BE SOLE SUPPLIER FOR FIRST PHASE OF LARGE SCALE SOLAR PROJECT (PROJECT AMP) – DESPERATE LIFELINE FOR SOLYNDRA

WASHINGTON, FEB. 17, 2012 – Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL), Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, wrote today to the Secretary of the Department of Energy (DOE), Steven Chu, requesting documents and records relating to DOE’s $1.4 billion partial loan guarantee to Prologis regarding Project Amp.  Said Stearns, “Project Amp is a large-scale rooftop energy generation project using solar panels on commercial facility rooftops to generate electricity for sale to utilities and power purchasers.  The panels for first phase of Project Amp were to be sole sourced from the failing Solyndra, Inc.   Documents obtained by the Committee indicate that DOE had some hesitation in approving the loan guarantee and that Secretary Chu intervened on behalf of Project Amp.  This brings up many questions, including if this was an attempt to support the faltering Solyndra since it occurred during discussions over the second restructuring of the Solyndra loan guarantee.”

Stearns wrote to Secretary Chu requesting documents and records relating to Project Amp.  The letter states, “In a June 17, 2011 email, a Solyndra employee shared what he had learned from a BAML [Bank of America Merrill Lynch] senior investment banker who took part in the Project Amp negotiations with DOE, stating that, ‘[O]n three occasions this week he thought that the [Project Amp] deal was dead, but Secretary Chu personally pulled it off.  Chu shared with the team that this deal went to higher levels in the Obama Administration to gain approval than any other transaction in the Loan Guarantee Program, and that he personally committed to seeing it through to a successful conclusion.’  Further, the minutes of the June 18, 2011, DOE Credit Review Board for Project Amp stated that ‘Secretary Chu had requested the CRB convene to consider Project Amp.’”

The letter further states, “We have questions about Solyndra’s involvement in Project Amp, and what role Solyndra’s involvement played in DOE’s decision to issue a conditional commitment to Prologis for the project.  Project Amp’s conditional commitment from DOE came in June 2011, at a time when Solyndra’s financial condition had sharply deteriorated.  Only three months after DOE restructured the Solyndra loan guarantee in February 2011 to allow the company to continue operating, Solyndra was again running out of working capital.”

“It is astonishing that DOE actively negotiated a plan to risk even more taxpayer money to prop up Solyndra at all costs,” concluded Stearns.