Business Massive Taxpayer-Backed Solar Panel Manufacturer Goes Bankrupt
Posted on August 31, 2011 at 4:15pm by Buck Sexton Buck Sexton
Despite $535 million taxpayer dollars for loan guarantees and a speech from the President himself praising its success, the solar panel manufacturer Solyndra has gone bankrupt.
NBC reported the Chapter 11 filing is official, which means Solyndra‘s state-of-the-art, 300,000 square foot front-end manufacturing factory and a 500,000 square foot back-end facility are kaput for now.
Bloomberg News reported that the company’s reasons for the Chapter 11 Filing are “market and industry conditions.”
Apparently, the workers at Solyndra had no idea the company was in dire straits. As NBC wrote of their moment of recognition:
“When workers showed up at the Solyndra solar-panel factory in Fremont, California this morning — they were ordered to leave by guards, and then given instructions on how to pick up their final checks. In other words, the dream is over”
Until today, the company employed more than a thousand people worldwide. About 1100 of those employees are now out of a job. All of its offices in the United States, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, and France could shutter, unless a massive bankruptcy reorganization is structured. Its revenues of approximately $140 million in 2010 weren’t enough to keep the Green Energy behemoth open.
Some industry analysts believe there could be a massive consolidation of the solar panel manufacturing industry underway, while others believe the bankruptcies will result in closures.
Either way, there are clear signs the green energy industry is in trouble. Solyndra is the third U.S. solar panel manufacturer to go bankrupt this month. Evergreen Solar inc. filed Chapter 11 on August 18th, citing Chinese competition, overcapacity in the U.S. industry, and the failure of the U.S. to adopt green policies as the reasons for its failure. It’s $33 million facility in China, however, may remain open.
In the case of Solyndra, there were earlier signs of trouble. After it opened a massive $700 million facility, Solyndra canceled plans for a public stock offering and warned it could be in trouble if federal loan guarantees did not go through.
It appears now that the Department of Energy’s flagship loan guarantee for sustainable energy went to a company that couldn’t even sustain itself. And President Obama has held Solyndra up as an example of the the green energy movement’s ability to create jobs.
In May of last year, Obama toured the facility 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. ”
You can watch the full Obama speech here (skip to 4:33 for most relevant part):
1% of the total loans went bad, oh noes!!!!!! obama is such a failure!!!, as for the other stuff in there it's politics as usual, both sides do similar things to boost their agenda, hell, the republicans were willing to let the entrie economy fail in order to make obama fail.
Just curious. Where was the OMB on the tax windfall to Big Oil?
How any company can miss lower wages in competitor pricing is beyond me. The right product at the right time yet they blow a market analysis if they ever commissioned one at all?
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I'll believe corporations are persons when Texas executes one.: LBJ's Ghost
Too bad, Bush's first "stimulas" and Obama's next two (well, one in the works) are stupid. They are prolonging the agony, anybody should see the whole shamoly needed to fall flat on it's face way back when, we prolly would have been well under recovery's way . . . instead these political clowns are pumping our tax money into a blown balloon and blaming each other (reps & dems) all the while, and Joe public is buying it. What a scam.
4) The stimulus didn't work.
Reality: The stimulus worked, but was not enough. In fact, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the stimulus raised employment by between 1.4 million and 3.3 million jobs.
the problem wasn't the stimulus, but that it was too small, it was underestimated how much was needed. So while true a huge stimulus at the beginning wouldn't work as the economy must correct itself, there is a bit of overcorrection (remember the dow under 7000 !!!) and if we can catch at a level it will work at and prop it up there then the stimulus can speed up a recovery greatly, it's all about the size and the timing though.
right right right, vote for him then . . . That's why our economy is the most prosperous it's ever been just sign up for another wonderful 4 yrs.
bush (and republican policies) brought this economy down, the economy was in the toilet long before obama even began the campaign trail, the economy continued it's slide during the entire campaign only reversed course after obama's policies began, that is just reality.
we let the republicans dig this economy into a hole, and yes it is taking us a while to dig out since the republicans have fought back on any attempt while they just keep trying to dig deeper to then blame it on obama, If you want to blame it on obama then why? while he has said some anti-republican things, practically EVERYTHING that has passed has been republican in nature, a republican conceived health care plan, republican tax cuts with no increase in spending, he's gone back on pollution and car mpg regulations.... he is practically a republican.
NC and SC jobless rates went up, is there any area that actually experienced recovery due to Obama actions, or did some just bottom out so that the only direction was up? Most of the money wasn't even spent in areas that could impact the economy except for retaining some public sector jobs (which have no long term effect).
NC and SC jobless rates went up, is there any area that actually experienced recovery due to Obama actions, or did some just bottom out so that the only direction was up? Most of the money wasn't even spent in areas that could impact the economy except for retaining some public sector jobs (which have no long term effect).
just sign up for another wonderful 4 yrs.
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