11 June 2013 (15:02 UTC-07 Tango)/02 Sha’ban 1434/21 Khordad 1392/04 Wu-Wu (5th month) 4711

It’s been revealed that in May, Hoku Materials laid off its last engineer at the failed $700 million USD polysilicone factory in Pocatello, Idaho.  There are now only eight security guards working at the 50 football fields long factory.

Pocatello based news media interviewed the engineer who told them they were trying to work on a way to save the factory from bankruptcy sale.

Today, the factory is considered officially shut down, and will likely be parted out in bankruptcy liquidation sales (who wants to buy a 50 football fields long, never been used, polysilicone factory?).

The project was started five years ago, but right away ran into trouble because Hoku Corporation didn’t really have the money to build their Hoku Materials factory.  Pocatello even gave the company a huge tax break equivalent to the value of the land the factory was being built on.

Construction was delayed several times because Hoku couldn’t pay the construction contractor on time.  Eventually Hoku sold out to a Chinese company (Tianwei).  Then commodity market prices for polysilicone crashed.  The coup de gras was given by President Obama when he imposed high tariffs on Chinese solar power companies.

Another issue was that Idaho Power, the main supplier of electricity in Idaho, cut off power several times because Hoku didn’t pay their electric bill.  Now Idaho Power is jacking up electric rates for Idahoans, partially blaming it on the failed solar power polysilicone provider.

Most of Idaho Power’s electricity comes from dams on the Snake River, but water levels are so low they must rely more on wind and gas fired plants to generate electricity this year.  Regarding Hoku, Idaho Power is trying to regain the $23 million they invested.  In other words, Idaho Power company officials made a bad investment and they’re going to make their captive customers pay for it!

Electric rates for Idahoans trapped on the Idaho Power grid will see a 12% increase, the fourth largest increase in Idaho’s history.

I’ve been following this disaster for years, here’s more on the demise of Hoku Materials:

Capitalist Commodity Markets to blame for Pocatello’s Hoku Polysilicon near abandonment!