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In 2011, solar panel company Solyndra defaulted on a $535 million loan guaranteed by the Department of Energy. The agency had a few other high-profile bankruptcies, too — electric car company Fisker and solar company Abound among them. But now that loan program has started turning a profit.
Overall, the agency has loaned $34.2 billion to a variety of businesses, under a program designed to speed up development of clean-energy technology. Companies have defaulted on $780 million of that — a loss rate of 2.28 percent. The agency also has collected $810 million in interest payments, putting the program $30 million in the black.
When Congress created the loan program under the Energy Policy Act of 2005, it was never designed to be a moneymaker. In fact, Congress imagined there would be losses and set aside $10 billion to cover them.
Still, when the Solyndra case emerged, Republicans on Capitol Hill had pointed criticism for the Obama administration. Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., called the Solyndra case "disgusting," and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, labeled it "a colossal failure." The conservative group Americans for Prosperity produced a television ad accusing President Obama of paying back campaign contributors.
There was an FBI raid on Solyndra's headquarters and an investigation but, so far, no prosecutions. Now that the loan program is turning a profit, those critics are silent. They either declined or ignored NPR's requests for comment. And with that, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz wants to change people's perception of his agency's loan program.
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"It literally kick-started the whole utility-scale photovoltaic industry," Moniz says. The program funded the first of five huge solar projects in the West. Moniz says before that, developers couldn't get money from private lenders. But now, with proven business models, they can.
The Energy Department actively monitors all the companies in its portfolio for potential default risks, "and when there are warning flags, then the disbursements are suspended — possibly ended," Moniz says.
But he says the Energy Department doesn't want to go too far in the direction of only lending to safe investments. "We have to be careful that we don't walk away from risk, because otherwise we're not really going to advance the marketplace," he says.
Moniz points to a small company called Beacon Power as an example. It got an Energy Department loan, went bankrupt and defaulted on about $14 million in debt. Today the company is back in business, providing a valuable service to electricity grids and repaying the rest of its loan.
In eastern Pennsylvania, one of Beacon's facilities sits on 4 acres in an industrial park. Underground are 200 black flywheels that each measure 7 feet tall and 3 feet around, and weigh 2,000 pounds. They spin faster when storing energy and slow down when releasing it.
"We're recycling excess energy that's on the power grid and then putting it back into the grid when it's needed," explains President and CEO Barry Brits. He says the flywheels are essentially mechanical batteries.
But unlike the battery in your cellphone, the flywheel doesn't wear out over time. "What's unique about the flywheel is that it really is unlimited in terms of the number of times it can charge and discharge," Brits says.
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Beacon Power's plant in Hazle Township, Pa., stores electricity for brief periods, making it easier for the local power grid to integrate intermittent forms of renewable generation, such as wind and solar. Flywheels located in the blue cylinders store energy and operate like a battery — pulling in power from the grid when there's too much and releasing it back out when there's not enough. Jeff Brady/NPR hide caption
itoggle caption Jeff Brady/NPR
Beacon Power's plant in Hazle Township, Pa., stores electricity for brief periods, making it easier for the local power grid to integrate intermittent forms of renewable generation, such as wind and solar. Flywheels located in the blue cylinders store energy and operate like a battery — pulling in power from the grid when there's too much and releasing it back out when there's not enough.
Jeff Brady/NPR
Being able to store electricity is important because wind and solar generators only produce power when the sun is shining and the wind is blowing. That can make life difficult for grid operators who must balance the amount of electricity produced with how much is used. Storing power — even for brief periods — gives them more flexibility and makes it easier to include intermittent forms of renewable generation on the grid.
Brits says the Department of Energy loan allowed his company to test and then improve its flywheels. "Our technology is now well-proven. We have over 7 million operating hours," he says, adding that building a plant costs half of what it did three years ago.
Despite early missteps, the Department of Energy is ready to invest in more projects that could advance clean energy technology in the U.S. Moniz says his agency has about $40 billion to lend in coming years.
Department of Energy
Solyndra
It's a gray afternoon in Columbia, Mo., and Officer Cory Dawkins is escorting a man to jail — the suspect is charged with endangering a child. Dawkins pushes a button on his body camera to start recording, then exits his patrol car and walks the suspect inside the jailhouse.
The officer signs papers, talks shop with the guards, and returns to his vehicle.
While Dawkins didn't need his camera for this process, he's glad he has one. Especially after what happened in Ferguson, Mo., about an hour and a half away. When Officer Darren Wilson shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown in August, he was not wearing a body camera to record the incident.
"Unfortunately that officer in Ferguson did not have a body camera, or we might not be having this conversation," Dawkins says. "We might not have had all the mayhem that's happened in Ferguson if he had been wearing a body camera."
Sixteen days before the Ferguson shooting, Columbia's police department announced it was equipping all of its officers with body cameras made by Taser International.
The cost was about $130,000 up front for hardware and software, and then $40,000 every year after that for digital storage. Assistant Chief John Gordon says that while that's a lot of money, with a smaller force it's feasible.
"That's also for 100 officers," he says. "Well, St. Louis County, St. Louis city, I don't know how many officers those [have], but I mean that's huge. A huge investment."
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In its first earnings report since Ferguson, Taser International said bookings for camera and digital evidence storage nearly tripled from the same period last year. Taser International hide caption
itoggle caption Taser International
In its first earnings report since Ferguson, Taser International said bookings for camera and digital evidence storage nearly tripled from the same period last year.
Taser International
And Gordon worries that the attention generated by events in Ferguson may force other departments to make some difficult tradeoffs.
"Our fundamentals is to provide services to our taxpayers," Gordon says. "Our fundamentals is to protect our officers and our employees. And another one of our fundamentals is to make sure that we have a good trained staff, and those things should never be sacrificed for technology."
But more attention is a good thing for Dan Behrendt, chief financial officer at Taser International, the dominant player in the officer body camera market.
"It's a really exciting time for Taser and certainly all the momentum we're seeing in our wearable camera business is fun to talk about," Behrendt says.
In its first earnings report since Ferguson, Taser said bookings for camera and digital evidence storage nearly tripled from the same period last year.
Post-Ferguson, Behrendt says the number of agencies seeking out Taser cameras, something he calls inbound activity, is surging.
"The two weeks after Ferguson we saw about a [tenfold] increase in inbound activity and that sort of sustained at about [double] what the previous level was," he says.
Steve Dyer, an analyst at Craig-Hallum Capital in Minneapolis, says with about 1 million sworn police officers in the U.S., there are lots of sales opportunities.
"It's a bit of a land grab, and by that I mean that I think a lot of these deals, you know, will happen, will be won in the next 12 to 18 months," Dyer says.
Dyer says Taser is positioned well to expand quickly to match demand, in part because it already sells police departments the weapons that share its name.
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Gordon, the assistant chief, says in just the past few months, he's seen new companies introducing competing technology.
"We're on a 3-year contract with Taser," he says. "But in 2 to 2 1/2 years, we're going to start seeing what technology is out there."
And when the time comes to renew their contract, Gordon is hopeful that the new generation of cameras will be much cheaper.
body cameras
Ferguson, Mo.
Police
The imprint Ron Riveira's grandparents made on his life has been indelible. Ron, a hospice nurse in California, served as a Navy corpsman and a medic in the Marines. His grandmother and grandfather — a Korean War vet — helped raise him.
Ron remembers that his grandfather may not have said much, but his love for his wife was obvious. "They were a phenomenal couple," Ron tells his friend Jason Deitch at StoryCorps in Concord, Calif.
He remembers once that at the kitchen table, a guy who was dating his aunt swore. "My grandpa looks over at him, just raises an eyebrow, don't say nothing. Grandma comes out of the kitchen, grabbed him up by the ear, walked the kid to the door, kicked him in the butt, walks back in. Doesn't say a word, man, doesn't say a frickin' word!"
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Ron Riveira with his grandparents — his stepfather's parents -- Edward and Rosemarie Feuerbach. Courtesy of Ron Riveira hide caption
itoggle caption Courtesy of Ron Riveira
Ron Riveira with his grandparents — his stepfather's parents -- Edward and Rosemarie Feuerbach.
Courtesy of Ron Riveira
His grandfather looked at his wife and said "Rosemary, I love you."
"And my grandma goes, 'Edward, I know,' goes back to what she's doing," he says. "I mean, they were the ultimate team. And that woman supported everything that that man went through."
For years, Ron says his grandfather never said anything about his time in Korea, but, he remembers his grandfather never swam without pants on because of the shrapnel scars on his legs and his back. "So when I came back from the military, grandpa grabbed me, and he took me downstairs at their house and he broke down and told me every single thing that he went through," Ron says. "And he showed me the scars on his legs, and then he gave me his medals. That day was more important than any day of my life, than anything that was given to me in the military. 'Cause that was my grandpa. I'm the product of that environment."
Ron now does hospice care for veterans. "I lost my grandmother, and that's when I became a hospice nurse, and every time I go into a home, I see a piece of my family. I see a grandma and a grandpa that need help. And I can fix that," Ron says.
"You said to me, 'I help the brothers get ready for their last deployment,' "Jason says.
"Absolutely. It's just like your first job, your first door you're gonna kick in. That's a hot, scary door, dude," Ron says.
"To care for people at the end of their life and to prepare them for that as much as you can, that is a beautiful task, brother," Jason says. "You have a life that is an act of devotion and love. You can't have earned more garment than that.
Produced for Morning Edition by Nadia Reiman and Michael Garofalo.
StoryCorps is a national nonprofit that gives people the chance to interview friends and loved ones about their lives. These conversations are archived at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, allowing participants to leave a legacy for future generations. Learn more, including how to interview someone in your life, at StoryCorps.org.
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