A geothermal energy company with a $98.5 million loan guarantee from the Obama administration for an alternative energy project in Nevada — which received hearty endorsements from Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid — faces financial problems, and the company's auditors have questioned whether it can stay in business.
Much like Solyndra LLC, a California solar-panel manufacturer with a $535 million federal loan guarantee that went bankrupt, Nevada Geothermal Power (NGP) has incurred $98 million in net losses over the past several years, has substantial debts and does not generate enough cash from its current operations after debt-service costs, an internal audit said.
"The company's ability to continue as a going concern is dependent on its available cash and its ability to continue to raise funds to support corporate operations and the development of other properties," NGP auditors said in a financial statement for the period ending March 31.
"Consequently, material uncertainties exist which cast significant doubt upon the company's ability to continue as a going concern," the statement said.
Mr. Reid, a Nevada Democrat who led passage of the $814 billion stimulus bill and worked to include the loan guarantee program to help finance clean-energy projects, predicted in 2010 that NGP would "put Nevadans to work" and declared that Nevada was the "Saudi Arabia of geothermal energy."
Mr. Chu celebrated NGP's potential in his June 2010 announcement of the loan guarantee, saying the federal government's support of the company demonstrated its commitment to geothermal power to achieve the nation's clean-energy goals.
