Bad day for US solar industry

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Phil Graham

Honorary PhD
Mar 10, 2011
651
1
18
Atlanta, GA
Solyndra, the US's best hope for commercial CIGS solar cells declares bankruptcy, out of the blue. Third American solar manufacturer this month...

The guys were a big time operation. Big clean rooms, advanced robotics for packaging, etc. They were planning to expand production into a shuttered electronics plant south of Atlanta.

CIGS is an advanced, premium-cost solar technology. The Chinese have been very successful in producing low cost silicon-based cells, as have Suniva, another Atlanta solar cell company.

Wall Street Journal article
 
Re: Bad day for US solar industry

It is unfair in hindsight to pick their strategy apart, but some were not surprised.

I will try to retrain myself and just say, lots of start-ups fail, while usually without building brand new factories.

The new building is not the reason they failed, but perhaps representative of their judgment and priorities.

JR
 
Re: Bad day for US solar industry

The loan is not news, this was a showcase investment by the current administration to promote green jobs.

There are currently investigations looking into circumstances surrounding the loans, so prudence suggests waiting for the rest of the story and not jumping to conclusions (about loan improprieties).

Apparently the tax payers were subordinated to get paid after private investors, so we are not likely to see that money back, or have much claim in the bankruptcy proceedings.

It has been rough sledding for solar companies for two reasons. #1 the Chinese have invested heavily into advanced technology dropping their costs, and #2 many governments who were heavily subsidizing solar power are tight on money so cut back on their subsidies. The confluence of these two events has dropped market prices a bunch, making less cost effective manufacturers, unprofitable.

JR
 
Re: Bad day for US solar industry

John Roberts said:
<snip>
...
It has been rough sledding for solar companies for two reasons. #1 the Chinese have invested heavily into advanced technology dropping their costs, and #2 many governments who were heavily subsidizing solar power are tight on money so cut back on their subsidies. The confluence of these two events has dropped market prices a bunch, making less cost effective manufacturers, unprofitable.

JR
Click to expand...
I can see effects of the market here in Germany/Europe as well.

The market is hitting with full force now, only the fittest survive. So we will see companies failing in numbers in the next years.
 
Re: Bad day for US solar industry

John Halliburton said:
And on top of that, the Solyndra CEO and his #2 pleaded the Fifth yesterday before the Senate committee.

John
Click to expand...

While I am definitely not a fan of the government picking winners and losers (with my tax dollars), I am inclined to give the business executives the benefit of the doubt. We all have the right to take the 5th, and when speaking under oath in such a venue, you could easily end up in the gray-bar hotel for any false statements or faulty recollections. It's not just liability for previous illegal behavior, the testimony itself is an opportunity to screw up, and the interviewers will be working hard to catch them in something, and they are a target rich opportunity.

There is more than a little political gamesmanship going on. I believe it was the House Energy and Commerce Committee? The senate, controlled by democrats so not inclined to stir up this hornet's nest. The executives gave advance notice that they would exercise their constitutional privileges to not self-incriminate themselves. The hearings were held anyhow, clearly to embarrass the administration. Perhaps I have been paying too much attention to this, but I felt this was all redundant for show, while many in the public will still not get it.

If I were those executives I would be more concerned about past claims they made that everything was fine. :-( The FBI is already on this case, so we may get our pound of flesh eventually. We won't ever get the money back, or any green jobs from this group. It might be worth inspecting the rush of applications for this same program, that closes the end of this month. I think this extra publicity already killed one pending application.


JR
 
Re: Bad day for US solar industry

John Roberts said:
We all have the right to take the 5th, and when speaking under oath in such a venue, you could easily end up in the gray-bar hotel for any false statements or faulty recollections. It's not just liability for previous illegal behavior, the testimony itself is an opportunity to screw up, and the interviewers will be working hard to catch them in something, and they are a target rich opportunity.
Click to expand...

This brings to mind a YouTube clip praising the 5th

.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fNPB7OZglk
 
Re: Bad day for US solar industry

He says it better than I ever could. Interesting that he uses the Lacey act (see recent Gibson thread) as his example for the spiders web of federal crimes we must negotiate. There was a recent opinion published by the DOJ saying that individuals wouldn't be pursued and prosecuted for Lacey act violations, but even they added the weasel word "knowingly" in italics, and the letter of the law is not so limited. I don't like relying upon the whims of prosecution for my personal freedom.

For the subject solar cell executives they are mostly guilty of believing their own BS and embarrassing their political benefactors with their incompetence. The real transgression here (IMO) is government wonks thinking they are smarter than individuals about how to spend the public's money for the public's best interest.

Of course opinions vary.

JR

PS: I think we should be helpful when questioned by police, they are predominantly the good guys trying to protect us, but we should also be thoughtful about putting ourselves at risk. Martha Stewart did hard time for lying to federal instigators, not for any criminal behavior she may have been lying about. The difficulty of course is knowing what laws we must be careful about, but never lie to the feds.
 
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