Matthew's Comments

As I wrote earlier, this is not going to reflect well upon the US solar industry, any way you look at it:

FREMONT, Calif. (AP) — FBI agents executed search warrants on Thursday at the headquarters of California solar firm Solyndra, which received a $535 million loan from the federal government before filing for bankruptcy last week.

Agents executed multiple search warrants at the company's headquarters in Fremont as part of an investigation with the Department of Energy's Office of Inspector General, according to FBI spokesman Peter Lee. Lee said he could not provide details about the investigation.

Solyndrais a solar-panel manufacturer once touted by President Barack Obama as a beneficiary of his administration's economic policies. It announced last week that it was laying off 1,100 workers and filing for bankruptcy.

The company was held up as the model for government investment in green technology. In addition to the $535 million loan guarantee, it received visits from the president and other state and federal officials.

It filed bankruptcy amid hard times in the nation's solar industry. The price for solar panels has tanked, in part because of heavy competition from Chinese companies, dropping by about 42 percent this year.

In a blog posting, Energy Department spokesman Dan Leistikow said Solyndra was a once promising company that had increased sales revenue by 2,000 percent in the past three years. The $535 million loan guarantee was sought by both the Bush and Obama administrations, he said, and private investors also put more than $1 billion into Solyndra.

Republicans have been looking into the Solyndra loan for months. The House Energy and Commerce Committee subpoenaed documents relating to the loan from the White House Office of Management and Budget.

The company is also being sued by workers who were abruptly laid off after last week's announcement.

A Solyndra spokesman did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

OK - So Solyndra failed in part or full because 1) faulty tube tech; 2) overestimating poly costs; 3) mountings that were not as superior as promoted; 4) poor management; 5) crummy customer service; 6) corrupt government lending; 7) China's subsidies. Anyone got an idea what's the next step in ramping up US competitiveness in solar manufacturing?

Regrettably I think Paula is right on the mark. While Solyndra's technology and bet on high cost silicon may have raised questions from the start, it was not an unreasonable bet at the time the loan guarantee was made. And Solyndra's bankruptcy is not the only sign of a deteriorating picture for solar industry manufacturing in the US. There's Evergreen, of course, and SpectraWatt, and don't forget that BP Solar halted manufacturing at its Fredericksburg, Maryland plant last spring. The outlook is not good here in Washington. The vendetta has already begun with House Republican's using Solyndra to launch a wider investigation into federal funding for renewables. Solar installations will continue, but you can bet that any hope the US had to be a lead solar manufacturer is heading down the drain, the latest chapter in the hollowing out of US manufacturing. With stimulus funds expiring while China pours more subsidies into clean energy, the focus upon debt reduction, creating jobs shunted to the back burner, and conservative's ongoing war upon "Big Green," you can be certain that little support from the feds will be forthcoming in the foreseeable future. Solyndra's failure will provide a cause célèbre for opponents of renewables. Whether Solyndra's technology was viable or not, its demise at this moment in time is lamentable indeed.