Solyndra Fab Shutdown a Slap in the Face of USA Discretionary Federal Green Aid

In my previous missive I had opined that the US Solar Energy Policies were misguided as President Obama visited a Solyndra Factory and the US Department of Energy gave a huge $535 million loan guarantee to Solyndra without any substantial due diligence or competition.Note that established solar companies like Evergreen Solar are literally crying for government support without getting any.Now Evergreen Solar has planned to shutter US factories to open a solar plant in Wuhan,China with Chinese government support.Same thing is happening with other solar companies like Energy Conversion Devices,Sunpower and others.US Loan Guarantees to Abound Solar and Abengoa also seem to be a waste while massive US Treasury Grants and Aid are creating Solar Thermal White Elephants in California.Note the billions of  dollars in discretionary aid would be spent much better on R&D and subsidies to existing US solar companies which are losing out to Asian competition.

Solyndra has never got its cost economics right as was evident from its failure to do an IPO.The company has raised almost a billion dollars now without much to show for it .With a billion dollars, company  like First Solar could double its capacity to 1 GW.Instead Solyndra has decided to reduce its foretasted capacity to 300 MW by 2013 from 600 MW . This would make it an extremely small player in an hugely crowded and competitive solar market in 2013.Giving guarantees to small startups without transparent bidding and competition is costing millions of dollars to US taxpayers.There has been no accounting and no responsibility for the huge potential losses that DOE is going to incur because of supporting the wrong horse.

Fremont solar panel maker Solyndra scales back expansion plans – Mercury News

Solyndra Inc., the high-flying solar panel maker once touted by President Barack Obama as a model for a green energy future, said Wednesday it has scuttled its factory expansion in Fremont, a move that will stop the company’s plans to hire 1,000 workers.

Solyndra said it will also close an existing factory in the East Bay. That will leave the company with one Fremont factory, a new plant visible from Interstate 880.The moves mean that instead of having 2,000 workers in Fremont, Solyndra will cap its work force at 1,000, which is about the current level. Solyndra also will, over the next several weeks, eliminate 155 to 175 jobs in Fremont. That includes 135 contract employees and 20 to 40 full-time workers, said David Miller, a Solyndra spokesman.