SunEdison’s big fall may have little impact on clean energy

The aggressive expansions and crushing debt load that pushed the company, whose operational office is Belmont, to the brink of bankruptcy as it lost $9.2 billion in equity in nine months are not emblematic of the industry at large, according to clean energy analysts and executives interviewed at the Bloomberg New Energy Finance summit in New York, which continues Tuesday.

Clean energy is a young and fragmented industry, with legions of companies perpetually popping up and flaring out.

SunEdison’s rise and fall may be a footnote in the annals of clean-energy collapses, resulting in less lasting damage than the crashes of Suntech Power Holdings Co. and Solyndra LLC.

“It doesn’t change anything,” said Francesco Venturini, chief executive officer of Enel Green Power SpA, the renewables wing of Italy’s biggest utility and a competitor of SunEdison.

SunEdison’s downfall began with a buying binge as the company scooped up assets on every continent except Antarctica, amassing $11.7 billion in debt by Sept. 30.

On Thursday, the developer disclosed that it had received a subpoena from the U.S. Department of Justice and a similar inquiry from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over the failed Vivint deal.

“This doesn’t change our view of the strength of the U.S. renewable energy market,” Zindler said.

Solyndra’s bankruptcy in 2011, after it was awarded $535 million in U.S. government loan guarantees, made it a lightning rod for criticism by politicians against support extended to the industry.

Suntech’s default in 2013 dried up investor interest in China’s solar manufacturers, which a decade ago raised more than $5 billion from Wall Street to fund factory expansions.