Stirling Energy Systems bankruptcy adds to US solar woes

The Arizona-based maker of SunCatcher concentrating solar power (CSP) dish engines has been on the rocks since at least late 2010, when its Irish parent company, NTR, disclosed heavy losses stemming from its expansion into the US solar market.

Despite having permits and power purchase agreements in place for nearly 1.4GW of California SunCatcher projects as recently as a year ago, SES’ project-development sister company Tessera was never able to obtain financing.