Tonopah Solar Energy Files Chapter 11, Crescent Dunes Faces Court-Supervised Sale

Tonopah Solar Energy, LLC filed for Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware on January 21, 2026, seeking a fast Section 363 sale of the Crescent Dunes concentrated solar power plant near Tonopah. The company listed the case as 1:26-bk-10060 and said Crescent Dunes Finance, Inc. is the primary secured creditor with about $173 million of prepetition debt. The filing asks the court to approve debtor-in-possession financing of up to $10 million to carry the sale process forward.

The filing frames urgency around a commercial contract deadline. Crescent Dunes has sold power under what the company describes as the Switch PPA, which expires on February 21, 2026, creating a narrow window for a buyer to preserve revenue contracts. The proposed DIP loan from Crescent Dunes Finance carries payment-in-kind interest of 4.5 percent with an additional 2.0 percent default rate if triggered. The claims agent on the case is Epiq.

Crescent Dunes is a central-receiver, molten-salt thermal storage plant built on public land near Tonopah. Public filings list the project with 110 megawatts of nominal capacity and 1.1 gigawatt-hours of energy storage; one technical report described the project as 100 megawatts, reflecting a common discrepancy in published descriptions. The plant occupies roughly 1,620 acres and sits on a 2,250-acre Bureau of Land Management lease that runs through December 31, 2039. The site ties into the Nevada grid via a 5.6-mile, 230 kilovolt transmission line.

Technical and operational history figures prominently in the sale calculus. Forensics cited in filings and technical summaries identify the hot salt storage tank as the critical failure point, noting multiple leaks and a fourth leak in 2023. Operators implemented a derating strategy that lowered hot salt operating temperatures to about 850 to 900 degrees Fahrenheit. Published descriptions of the original build list as many as 17,500 heliostats and a 640-foot tower, while other summaries say the field included over 10,000 heliostats.

The Chapter 11 is the second for the project since 2020. The plant’s troubled financial past included a major Department of Energy loan guarantee and litigation that produced a high-profile settlement in 2020, items that shape creditor claims and public interest in any sale. The filing comes as the broader U.S. solar-thermal sector faces headwinds; other large-scale projects have announced scaled closures or reconfigurations, complicating buyer appetite and valuation for CSP assets.

For Nye County residents, the immediate questions are practical: who will operate or buy the asset, whether local O&M contractors and suppliers will keep work, and how tax and lease revenues tied to the plant and its BLM footprint will be affected. Tonopah Solar Energy’s petition states the company has no employees and relies on a third-party O&M contractor, which suggests local labor impacts may be concentrated among subcontractors.

Next steps in the legal process include court approval of the DIP financing and bidding procedures for the 363 sale, with the Switch PPA expiry on February 21, 2026 creating a hard market deadline. Local stakeholders and companies with ties to the plant should monitor the Delaware docket for the sale timetable, stalking-horse designations, and any filings that clarify operational status and cure costs tied to power contracts. The outcome will shape whether Crescent Dunes remains a dispatchable storage asset in Nye County or shifts hands as part of a broader reckoning for large-scale CSP.