If the eight-month-long House Energy and Commerce Committee investigation of the half-billion-dollar Department of Energy loan guarantee granted to Solyndra were a night at the fights, then Thursday's hearing would surely be the main event.

After five hearings, two subpoenas, 85,000 pages of documents and near-daily battles between Republican investigators and the Obama administration, Energy Secretary Steven Chu will appear before the committee to answer questions about the failed solar energy company that has become a major political headache for the White House.

SPECIAL REPORT

Solyndra, a solar manufacturer that was given a $535 million loan guarantee and touted by the White House as a model for the clean energy economy, has filed for bankruptcy. E&E examines how it got there and what it means. Click here to read the report.

While some members of Congress have called on Chu to testify for nearly two months, committee investigations subcommittee Chairman Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) has taken his time building up to Chu, first calling in Office of Management and Budget staff, the head of the DOE loan program and Treasury Department officials as he has built his case against Chu and the Obama administration.

Republicans have pursued multiple lines of inquiry in their Solyndra probe, but their biggest concerns revolve around whether political pressure was a factor in Solyndra's loan approval in 2009 and whether a controversial loan restructuring deal earlier in 2011, which was authorized by Chu, was legal under the 2005 Energy Policy Act.

Chu is sure to get an earful from Republicans on both issues this week, but a Friday report by The Washington Post has also given Republicans plenty more fodder for Thursday's showdown.

Newly obtained confidential documents indicate that DOE repeatedly tried to dispel concerns about Solyndra's increasingly dire financial situation this year and failed to take steps that would have limited taxpayer losses ahead of the company's bankruptcy filing.

DOE officials failed to dispute Solyndra's glowing report last summer to Congress that the company was growing, even though internal documents suggested otherwise, according to the Post. In fact, DOE went to extraordinary lengths to prop up Solyndra and tried to aid the company even when the White House believed nothing further could be done.

The documents also showed escalating tensions between the White House, OMB and DOE as they came to the conclusion that Solyndra was broken and that political fallout could be significant.

Since Solyndra's downfall, Chu has gone to great lengths to defend the bet that DOE made on the company through the loan guarantee program and couched the loss as an unfortunate bump in the road toward a clean energy future for the United States.

At a conference in Washington, D.C., earlier this month, Chu said that the country must decide whether it can move past the Solyndra debacle to compete in the global clean energy market or cede the playing field to foreign competitors like China.

"America faces a choice today: Are we going to recognize the opportunity and compete in the clean energy race or will we wave the white flag and watch all of these jobs go to China, Korea, Germany and other countries?" he said.

Schedule: The hearing is Thursday, Nov. 17, at 9 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn.

Witness: Energy Secretary Steven Chu.