Spend a whole lotta money, and now can’t get any revenue in. See also, white elephant.
Stranded assets are “assets that have suffered from unanticipated or premature write-downs, devaluations or conversion to liabilities”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranded_asset
On coal assets being stranded in China and Japan
29 May 2016 Japan, China face mounting risks of stranded coal investments