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SunEdison files for bankruptcy protection

In a spectacular collapse that took just nine months, SunEdison filed for Chapter 11 protection Thursday, marking the largest bankruptcy in the history of the renewable energy industry.

“Our decision to initiate a court-supervised restructuring was a difficult but important step to address our immediate liquidity issues,” SunEdison Chief Executive Ahmad Chatila said in a statement. “The court process will allow us to right-size our balance sheet and reduce our debt.”

In July 2015, SunEdison appeared to be riding high, building and operating commercial solar energy projects around the world, including several in Southern California. Its stock market value reached almost $10billion.

But the company, based in Missouri and with solar headquarters in San Mateo County, went on an acquisitions bender, racking up $11.7 billion in debt in the last two years. SunEdison gobbled up projects in every continent except Antarctica.

“It doesn't work to try to be the biggest and get the biggest market share at the expense of profits,” said Jenny Chase, head of solar analysis for Bloomberg New Energy Finance. “You do have to have some focus on A) your strategic competencies and B) the bottom line.”

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-sunedison-bankruptcy-20160421-story.html