Solyndra was touted by the Obama administration as a prime example of how green technology could deliver jobs. The President visited the facility in May of last year and said "it is just a testament to American ingenuity and dynamism and the fact that we continue to have the best universities in the world, the best technology in the world, and most importantly the best workers in the world. And you guys all represent that. "
The other sad part about this is when Babs Made her great visit and speech it was at their brand new facility paid for by the tax payers. It was touted because they needed this expanded space. Their older plant was just down the road. The day after the election they closed the old plant. Now the new one too.
I do NOT know if green industry is the job producer of the future or not but this failure could be due to bad management team with poor execution, maybe being “too early” (I have been through that with one start-up but we were able to adjust and survived), etc…
No. that just shows that it needs more taxpayer money to support it.
I hope many more businesse similar to this fail, so we can spend more money to start new ones, which will really kick start job growth and economic excellence in this country–a.k.a, The Krugman Way.
earlier this year and warned it would be in significant trouble if federal loan guarantees did not go through.
The federal government offered $535 million in low cost loan guarantees from the Department of Energy. NBC Bay Area has contacted the White House asking for a statement.
So does anyone have anymore info on exactly what happened than this? Did this company actually GET 535million and wanted MORE loans and THEN went under? Did the federal government OFFER 535M and that was not enough and THEN they went under? Something else?
In the case of the former the tax payer is out 535M and we are dumbasses. In the case of the latter seems like the government made the right call by not giving them any money.
They used the loan and other capital to build a new large-scale facility. So there is a $700+ million brand spanking new robotic controlled solar manufacturing facility sitting there. Maybe that thing won’t cover the entire value of the loan if sold off, but I don’t think that $535 million in taxpayer money just evaporated either. We’ll have to see what goes down in the bankruptcy though.
Material costs for stuff as basic as concrete and steel has gone through the roof in the last 6-7 years (check out the IHS CERA indices for energy plants), and it’s hard for ANY new facility to get traction because of that, never mind one based on a more expensive technology like solar. Even companies that won the awards for hundreds of millions in stimulus dollars for energy projects are basically saying “no thanks” because they are too expensive even with that (e.g. AEP) huge amount of government backing.
They used the loan and other capital to build a new large-scale facility. So there is a $700+ million brand spanking new robotic controlled solar manufacturing facility sitting there. Maybe that thing won’t cover the entire value of the loan if sold off, but I don’t think that $535 million in taxpayer money just evaporated either. We’ll have to see what goes down in the bankruptcy though.
According to the article they are filing chapter 11 which means reorganization. That could mean anything from them begging the government for more loans and getting them to selling off assets.
No idea how it turns out in the end. Could be a success story or could see another 700M of loans into the company to “Keep them going” and then a couple years down the line a huge going out of business sale
Actually, it was the good management and marketing that grabbed our tax dollars. Like the the rest of the welfare peeps and crooks, they got something for nothing! Brilliant!
but, but, but…the Chinese! Oh, wait…it was actually the fact that they Solyndra was 2-3x more expensive than their domestic competitors.
Love the SJ Merc’s take on it. In two paragraphs they manage to (a) create a boogeyman, and (b) acknowledge the real reason…
"Although Solyndra was buttressed by VC and federal money, the company struggled. Among the challenges that doomed Solyndra: Low-cost Chinese manufacturers backed by large subsidies from the government are building massive factories that have rapidly driven down the price of solar panels and shifted more than 50 percent of production to China. Yet analysts also noted that Solyndra had failed to curb its manufacturing costs. Industry watchers pointed out that Solyndra’s solar tubes were still about two or three times as expensive as the standard costs for solar manufacturers in the United States."
Out of curiousity…why would you build a massive new facility when you didn’t have the demand? This isn’t Field of Dreams. I’m guessing that the reason they did build is because they were flush with $500m in Government handouts that they just had to do something with. BHO definitely set this company up to be the flagship of the soon-to-be burgeoning green industry. Too bad he couldn’t do anything about their pricing or demand.
They used the loan and other capital to build a new large-scale facility. So there is a $700+ million brand spanking new robotic controlled solar manufacturing facility sitting there. Maybe that thing won’t cover the entire value of the loan if sold off, but I don’t think that $535 million in taxpayer money just evaporated either. We’ll have to see what goes down in the bankruptcy though.
Material costs for stuff as basic as concrete and steel has gone through the roof in the last 6-7 years (check out the IHS CERA indices for energy plants), and it’s hard for ANY new facility to get traction because of that, never mind one based on a more expensive technology like solar.*** Even companies that won the awards for hundreds of millions in stimulus dollars for energy projects are basically saying “no thanks” because they are too expensive even with that (e.g. AEP) huge amount of government backing***.
Where are you getting this idea from? I know of many energy related companies that took fed funds in the last few years to expand manufacturing, staff and investments in technology,etc.
Hrm. I should have clarified my statement. Just what I see in the small segment I look at (coal plants mostly). They are having a bitch of a time getting anyone to actually build anything with the hundreds of millions they are handing out.
Not sure if that’s reflective for many of the other large projects.
