It was then established as a state owned enterprise called Coal Corporation in 1987 (known as Coalcorp),[2] and renamed Solid Energy New Zealand Limited in 1997.

[18] In mid-August 2012, the chief executive, Don Elder, announced a decline in Solid Energy's revenue of $200 million and a review of its operations.

[20] Solid Energy's annual report for the financial year ended June 2012 was released in November and showed a loss of $40 million, a decline of 146% from the profit for 2011.

[24] In January 2013, workers at the Stockton Mine agreed to reduced hours and pay after months of negotiations with owners Solid Energy, who had dis-established several hundred jobs in the previous year.

[27] Finance Minister Bill English distanced the Government from the state-owned company's woes, saying it would no longer be paying out large bonuses to executives.

[29][30] A restructuring package in October 2013 gave the company an extra $100 million in equity, with 75% coming from banks and 25% from the New Zealand Government.

Solid Energy believed that its proposed projects "could unlock the vast potential of Southland’s multi-billion tonne lignite deposits by making them into high value products".

[39] In December 2010, Dr Jan Wright, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, issued a report, "Lignite and climate change: The high cost of low grade coal",[41] which criticised the lignite conversion proposals for their carbon intensity, their contribution to climate change and the likelihood that they would be eligible to receive a free allocation of carbon credits under the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme.

[42] Wright said "it makes no sense that the emissions trading system (ETS) rules would lead to taxpayers subsidising, even at a modest level, new investment in outdated dirty technology".

[43] On 22 February 2013, the New Zealand Herald reported that the plans for converting the Southland lignite into diesel, fertiliser and burnable briquettes has been abandoned due to debts and low coal prices.

[45] The company claims that the wood pellets are a sustainable, renewable fuel that burns so efficiently it is virtually smokeless, and that it meets stringent new clean air standards.

[45] According to Solid Energy's 2008 Annual Report, Nature's Flame was the largest manufacturer of wood pellets in the Southern Hemisphere.

[46] Nature's Flame began in 2003, when Solid Energy purchased a small wood pellet company based at Rolleston.

[citation needed] Resource consents were granted to Solid Energy for the development and operation of the Cypress mine on land near Waimangaroa.

On 27 May 2007, The Sunday Star-Times reported that Thompson and Clark Investigations Ltd, a security firm employed by Solid Energy, used private individuals to spy on SHVC.