Friday, September 02, 2011

How Much Did You Get for Your Solyndra

Less green jobs, all of a sudden:

In the biggest green-tech flameout yet, Silicon Valley solar panel maker Solyndra shut its doors and laid off 1,100 workers Wednesday after raising more than $1 billion from investors and securing a half billion dollar federal loan guarantee to build a state-of-the-art robotic factory that opened less than a year ago.

In a statement, the Solyndra said it would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy while exploring a sale of the business or licensing its thin-film photovoltaic technology.

“Despite strong growth in the first half of 2011 and traction in North America with a number of orders for very large commercial rooftops, Solyndra could not achieve full-scale operations rapidly enough to compete in the near term with the resources of larger foreign manufacturers,” the company said. “This competitive challenge was exacerbated by a global oversupply of solar panels and a severe compression of prices that in part resulted from uncertainty in governmental incentive programs in Europe and the decline in credit markets that finance solar systems.”
There's a lot more to this story than I have time to discuss at the moment, but study the last paragraph carefully, especially the part about "uncertainty in government incentive programs in Europe." Our government funds a company that depends on the uncertain largesse of other governments. And it doesn't go well. Can we draw any conclusions from that fact pattern?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

In other words, our products aren't viable unless we receive substantial subsidies from government.

Mr. D said...

That's one interpretation, anon. There are others, too.

Night Writer said...

And the "over-supply" of solar panels. The market ain't buying.

Gino said...

see? we cant count on the french for anything.

Gramps Toolshed said...

Hahahaha!!! So are we going to start seeing these show up at surplus stores?