Community Solar Projects in Maine and Minnesota in Foreclosure When Subsidies End

I then clicked on some attached links and got this:

My interest further piqued, I asked Perplexity to research the background and summarize:

A Solar Developer’s Maine Portfolio Goes on the Auction Block

A bank foreclosure on 23 community solar projects shows what happens when a subsidy-built industry loses its subsidy

On October 22, a Missouri bank will auction off a solar developer’s ownership of 23 community solar projects in a law office in Manhattan. Nineteen of the projects are in Maine and four are in Minnesota. The public foreclosure notice is short and dry, but the story behind it shows how fast a business can fail when its revenue depends on a policy that lawmakers can change.

The Notice

The Bank of Missouri, which took over M1 Bank this year, says “Events of Default have occurred and continue” on loans to the project companies. The bank has declared everything due at once. It will sell the membership interests (the ownership stakes) in each project company that two entities affiliated with Novel Energy Solutions of St. Paul, Minnesota, pledged as collateral. Novel’s founder, Clifton “Cliff” Kaehler, personally guaranteed the debt.

The details are revealing:

• The loans were amended three times in six months: October 2025, February 2026, and April 2026. That pattern usually means a lender is giving a struggling borrower more time.

• Bidders have to put up a $100,000 deposit and close by October 29 with cash.

• The bank can also bid the debt it is owed instead of cash, a common way for a lender to take the collateral itself when no one else bids.

• Everything is sold “AS IS, WHERE IS,” and Novel and Kaehler remain liable for any shortfall.

• The file name includes the word “Predevelopment.” These appear to be early-stage projects, not working solar farms.

The Developer

Novel describes itself as a family business that Kaehler started on his family’s 130-year-old farm in southeastern Minnesota (Novel Energy Solutions). In Maine, it sold subscriptions under the name “Join Solar,” promising members about 15 percent off their electric bills (Join Solar).

The company had its troubles before Maine changed course. Its Minnesota projects were stuck for years waiting to connect to Xcel Energy’s grid, while the cost estimates for grid upgrades kept moving (Star Tribune). It also fought a long federal lawsuit with REA Investments. REA said Novel delivered only 18 of the 50 megawatts of projects it had promised and asked for about $75 million. Novel countersued for about $95 million. After a 10-day trial, the jury found that each side had broken its contract and awarded each one dollar (U.S. District Court, Minnesota). A second contract suit was filed against Novel in Pennsylvania federal court this April (Law360).

Maine Changes Course

Maine’s community solar boom came from a 2019 expansion of net energy billing. Under that system, other ratepayers fund bill credits for subscribers to off-site solar farms. By 2025, Maine had more community solar capacity than any other state (Canary Media). The Public Advocate estimated the program would cost electricity customers more than $234 million in 2025 (The Maine Wire).

In 2025, the Legislature passed LD 1777. The law stopped utilities from accepting new community solar projects and, starting January 1, 2026, charged existing projects each month: $2.80 per kilowatt for projects of 1 to 3 megawatts and $6 per kilowatt for projects of 3 to 5 megawatts (Solar Power World). Developers called the charges an unconstitutional taking. In February, a federal judge refused to block them, finding that participation in net energy billing was voluntary (Maine Public).

For projects still in development, which is apparently what most of this portfolio was, the law closed the only route to the revenue that would have repaid their loans.

The Fallout

This summer, about 1,800 Maine community solar subscribers lost their monthly bill credits because some project owners did not pay the new charge. Reporters identified Novel’s Join Solar as one of them. The state’s Public Advocate said at least one of the delinquent companies may be insolvent and advised customers to consider switching providers (WGME). By then, Join Solar’s residential accounts had already moved to Visionary Strategic Solutions, a Jacksonville firm (Maine Association of Retirees).

The lender is feeling it too. At The Bank of Missouri, loans that are 90 or more days past due or no longer accruing interest rose from 0.19 percent to 1.50 percent in the year ending June 30 (BankRegReports).

What It Means

No public record yet ties this default directly to LD 1777. The bank’s notice gives no reason, and Novel has not commented publicly. The sequence of events is clear, though. A developer that was already weakened by grid delays and years of litigation built its Maine pipeline on a state program. The state closed that program to new projects, and within months the company stopped paying state charges, handed off its customers, and defaulted on its loans.

Unless an outside buyer pays cash, the bank will most likely bid its debt and take the projects, then try to recover what it can from projects that no longer have a way into net energy billing.

The broader lesson goes beyond one company. When an industry’s economics depend on a mandated transfer from ratepayers, the investment really rests on legislative goodwill, and that can run out. Maine’s ratepayers were right to object to the cost. But the boom-and-bust that followed has left behind stranded projects, unpaid bills, and subscribers who were promised savings that never arrived. Policymakers in other states, including Pennsylvania, should note both halves of that lesson before building the next program around incentives they may later need to take back.

Well said! Green energy is all dependent on ratepayer and taxpayer subsidies for which they have not voted. It’s a grift and nothing more, as this sad example demonstrates!