What Solyndra's Bankruptcy Means For Silicon Valley Solar Startups
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.”
Solyndra’s crash will almost certainly intensify a debate in Washington over whether the federal government did its due diligence in vetting Solyndra for a $535 million loan guarantee – or whether it should even be in the business of subsidizing new renewable energy technologies. Solyndra had become something of a poster child for the promise of the new clean green economy and the company’s Fremont, Calif., factories became a favored backdrop for visiting dignitaries, from former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to President Obama.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/toddwoody/2011/08/31/what-solyndras-bankruptcy-means-for-silicon-valley-solar-startups/
Ha! Utterly predictable.. how many times has Obama spoken at this plant, blowing hot air about "green jobs?" First of all, the plant never had any green jobs anyhow -- IT WAS ALL ROBOTS. Federal government invested $500,000,000, while the company only employed 1,100 carbon based lifeforms. That's a half a million dollars per human job created.
There's a video on youtube about this plant, it does look nice.. the robots are really high tech. But all for naught.. after so many visits from Obama, after half a billion from US taxpayers and another billion from private investors the whole thing has flamed out surprisingly quickly (how did they even burn through one and a half billion this fast?
).It's pretty sad.. no more jobs for Americans, and increasingly OUR AMERICAN ROBOTS CAN'T COMPETE EITHER -- even when we employ all robots, we still can't beat China.
Where are the green jobs, Mr. President? They don't exist, never did, we can't even find work for our robots much less humans with families to feed.
EDIT: Here's a pic of Slyndra's employees..
Robots. Pretty sad, who cares this company is out of business.. they wren't employing humans anyway, who needs 'em..
