Energy fails in two ways, and the two are related. The first is corporate failure: a company whose costs, contracts, capital or licence could not survive contact with the market. Enron (bankrupt 2 Dec 2001) was a trading and accounting machine with no durable cost advantage. Solyndra (Sep 2011) bet a $535m federal loan guarantee against a falling polysilicon price. SunEdison (21 Apr 2016) financed growth with yieldco equity that was only cheap while its share price rose. Better Place (2013) built a battery-swapping network no second carmaker joined. Northvolt (US Chapter 11 Nov 2024, Swedish bankruptcy Mar 2025) raised more than $13bn (reported) and still could not get its factory yields up. Nikola (Chapter 11 Feb 2025) sold a story before a truck. SunPower (Chapter 11 Aug 2024) and its residential peers broke when interest rates and California's net-metering rules changed together. Chesapeake (Chapter 11 28 Jun 2020) and hundreds of shale producers borrowed against a price that did not hold. The second is operational disaster: Piper Alpha (167 dead, Jul 1988), Exxon Valdez (Mar 1989), Chernobyl (Apr 1986), Deepwater Horizon (11 dead, Apr 2010), Fukushima Daiichi (Mar 2011), San Bruno (8 dead, Sep 2010) and the Camp Fire (85 dead, Nov 2018). Disasters destroy the licence to operate and often the company: PG&E went into Chapter 11 in Jan 2019 with ~$30bn of wildfire liabilities (reported); BP's Deepwater Horizon bill passed ~$65bn pre-tax (reported). Around both sit bubbles: the 1970s–80s oil boom and bust, the California power crisis of 2000–01, clean-tech venture 1.0 (2006–11), uranium (2007), yieldcos (2014–15), the 2020–21 SPAC wave in EVs and hydrogen, lithium (2021–23) and the 2023 offshore-wind cost shock. This section explains how energy companies fail, walks through the main cases, asks what each cost and who paid, and sets out how an experienced investor, lender, regulator or operator reads the warning signs.
What the study covers
- 1Overview: why energy fails differently
- 2How energy booms and busts work
- 3Corporate failures
- 4Operational disasters
- 5Bubbles
- 6Mechanics: the patterns that keep recurring
- 7Who pays: a ledger
- 8Key numbers
- 9Landmark companies and cases
- 10Pitfalls
- 11How an expert thinks about it
- 12Glossary
Technical exhibits
Worked examples, checklists and case studies included with this study.
Energy Failure Case Studies
Six cases told in depth with a cost-and-who-paid ledger: Enron, Solyndra, SunEdison, Northvolt, Deepwater Horizon (BP) and PG&E's Camp Fire
Energy Failure Warning Signs Checklist
Questions to ask before believing a cost curve, a backlog, a reserve figure, a ramp plan, a yieldco dividend or a safety record: for investors, lenders, buyers, regulators and board members