Solar exchange traded funds were among the worst performers in the third quarter as a string of cash-strapped solar manufacturers filed for bankruptcy.
Last Friday, Stirling Energy filed for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Stirling joins others like Solyndra Inc., Evergreen Solar and Spectrawatt Inc. in filing for bankruptcy protection after falling prices and competition from overseas rivals pushed U.S. solar manufacturers into the red.
Congress has been eying the subsidies provided to the fledgling industry in the wake of the bankruptcies, more notably Solyndra, which received $535 million in federal loans. [Solar ETFs Clouded by Another Bankruptcy]
“It’s just unfortunate that people are using this one project as political football,” Cai Steiger, an energy analyst for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said, in a HuffingtonPost report. “[They are] claiming things that aren’t true, ignoring what has already been accomplished with solar and conflating the entire solar industry with this one company.”