An outcry from critics of President Obama's clean energy policies erupted as soon as the Solyndra news came out and the Beacon Power situation will likely fuel the flames. The Boston Herald notes that Beacon also received a $5 million loan from MassDevelopment, that state’s quasi-public financing agency, in 2008.

What went wrong? According to the following statement carried in the Herald, Beacon CEO William Capp cited a number of issues: “The current economic and political climate, the financing terms mandated by DOE and Beacon’s recent delisting notice from Nasdaq have together severely restricted Beacon’s access to additional investments through the equity markets."

Reuters reports the bankruptcy comes on the heels of a White House announcement Friday that an independent investigation of DOE's loan portfolio will be conducted over the next 60 days by Wall Street veteran Herb Allison.

We asked earlier this month in our Smart Grid News Talk forum if it's time to rethink these loan guarantees. If you'd like to weigh in now, please do. Join the discussion   or use the Talk Back comment form below.

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More about Beacon Power from our archives …

Smart grid projects: the small and the mighty

Massachusetts smart grid toolkit

AES and Beacon Power revisited: Positive returns within reach for grid-scale energy storage

Grid storage systems get $60M boost from DOE. But where's the ROI?