Will Oregon get its giant solar farm, Sunstone Solar, planned for Christmas Valley in Morrow County? The project was approved by the State in 2024, but the project’s parent company, Pine Gate Renewables, is in financial troubles with its projects in other states and may be heading for Chapter 11.
Without federal subsidies, wind & solar energy projects are not affordable and the electricity is much more expensive for users. Solar and wind power aren not able to pay for the cost of energy production and transmission. Oregonians pay their electric utility company for the electricity they use PLUS a state fee for renewable energy projects. Taxpayers’ federal taxes are (were) used to subsidize renewable energy projects throughout the country. Whether a solar farm is built in Oregon or Wyoming, Oregon taxpayers are funding it, and if it is in Oregon, they are paying twice. WHY? Because Oregon has decreed that by 2040, the state will be 100% greenhouse gas emission free.
Unattainable environmental goals pushed by climate fanatics have taken public funds for pet projects and have enriched national and international companies, state agencies and solar farm land owners. Politicians, feeding on mass hysteria and a foolish quasi-scientific ideology, are using government money and government agencies (Land Conservation and Development Commission, State Energy Department, etc.) to approve projects and land uses that would be denied ordinary citizens.
Is this boondoggle finally over?
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Oregon approves state’s largest solar farm on 10,000 acres of farmland
Oregonlive, By Gloria , December 6, 2024
Oregon has just approved the state’s largest solar farm – and one of the country’s largest – on about 10,000 acres of active farmland in Morrow County as it pushes to fulfill ambitious clean energy mandates.
The mammoth project also takes a novel approach to offset the negative economic impacts to the local agricultural economy. Sunstone’s project will take a massive chunk of agricultural land out of production. It will occupy 9,442 acres within a 10,960-acre site of private land about 15 miles southeast of Boardman.
That’s an area roughly the size of 7,000 football fields. The site is zoned for exclusive farm use and has been cultivated in dryland winter wheat. More than half of the site is considered high-value farmland and a third has water rights.
The project was approved last month by the Energy Facility Siting Council, a state board that oversees the siting of large energy facilities. Construction is expected to begin in 2026.
Sunstone Solar is one of countless renewable energy projects coming online in Oregon to fulfill the state’s aggressive climate targets. They require the state’s two major electric companies — Portland General Electric and Pacific Power — to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with electricity sold in Oregon by 80% by 2030 and to reach 100% emission-free electricity sources by 2040.
As solar farms have multiplied in rural areas, farmers and other rural advocates have in recent years decried the harms they can wreak on local agriculture and farming-oriented economies – including shrinking access to farmland and loss of local farm-related revenues.
In response to those concerns, Oregon five years ago restricted solar development on prime farmland. Solar panels are allowed only on up to 12 acres in areas with the best soil for farming, and up to 320 acres may be turned into a solar farm in areas with poor soils and no water rights.
But the restrictions included a loophole. They allow solar developers to apply for an exception to build much bigger solar farms on farmland. They must prove the project has an advantage due to its location, would benefit the county economy and cause only minimal loss of productive farmland, said Christopher Clark, a siting analyst with the state Department of Energy.
“Pretty much every solar facility approved by the council requires an exception because they just use more land than allowed by the rules,” Clark said. “In the past few years, most of the proposed facilities have been in the thousands of acres range.”
Since 2011, 34 solar projects have been granted exceptions through either a county or the state siting council, accounting for the majority of the solar capacity and acreage approved in the state, according to the 2022-2023 Farm & Forest Report by the state’s Land Conservation and Development Commission.
In approving Sunstone Solar, the siting council found that the project developer, North Carolina-based Pine Gate Renewables, fulfilled conditions for an exception because the site is near existing transmission infrastructure, has limited water available and the project will lead to a net economic benefit locally.
Giant solar farms have become the norm in recent years due to the declining costs of building them, favorable renewable energy policies and government subsidies. And though solar’s footprint has been relatively small in Oregon – 212 megawatts of solar arrays now operate across 1,546 acres in the state and another 200 megawatts are under construction on about 3,000 acres – much bigger solar farms are in the pipeline.
According to a December update from the Oregon Department of Energy, the state has recently approved nearly 2,800 megawatts of solar capacity on 27,473 acres and is reviewing projects capable of producing another 3,200 megawatts on an additional 29,975 acres.
For example, the recently approved 500-megawatt Wagon Trail Solar project will also be located in Morrow County, on 7,450-acres just next to Sunstone Solar’s site.
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North Carolina solar firm to lay off more than 500 workers. Here’s why.
By Brian Gordon , The News & Observer, September 25, 2025
In North Carolina’s second-biggest layoff this year, the solar energy firm Blue Ridge Power will eliminate 517 positions in two cities, Asheville and Fayetteville.
“Over the past several months, the Company has been impacted by factors beyond its control,” Blue Ridge Power president David Sanders said in a Sept. 18 WARN letter to the N.C. Department of Commerce. “Including evolving regulatory and capital market environments that have affected many other companies in the renewable energy sector.”
Blue Ridge was founded in 2021 as an engineering, procurement, and construction (or EPC) division of Pine Gate Renewables, a solar power and energy storage developer in Asheville.
Pine Gate intends to close Blue Ridge Power entirely, The Asheville Citizen Times reported. The parent company did not respond to questions from The News & Observer about which “regulatory and capital market” precipitated its job cuts, but some solar industry experts have pointed to tariffs on Asian components and the removal of tax exemptions for solar installers under the federal One Big Beautiful Bill.
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Pine Gate prepares for a potential Chapter 11 Bankruptcy filing
PVTech October 1, 2025
Meanwhile, according to a recent Bloomberg report, Pine Gate Renewables is negotiating with lenders over a debt restructuring that may be executed through Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.
The news outlet highlighted that the company was seeking rescue financing or a loan that would fund the company through a restructuring in bankruptcy court. Among the companies that have reportedly been approached to secure the loan are Brookfield Asset Management and Carlyle Group.
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Pine Gate Renewables held debt talks with Brookfield, Carlyle in US
US solar faced tariffs, rising costs, and policy shifts as Pine Gate Renewables pursued
debt restructuring talks with Brookfield, Carlyle, guided by Lazard and Latham.
Pine Gate Renewables, a US solar and storage developer, was negotiating debt restructuring that could proceed under Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company was seeking rescue financing or a loan to support operations during restructuring in court. Its loans were secured by three collateral pools, and lenders were in talks to assume ownership of assets tied to individual loans.
