photo: Solyndra
It’s been a good news, bad news Friday for the solar industry. Silicon Valley startup Solyndra received a half billion-dollar loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy to build a solar module factory while further up Interstate 880 OptiSolar moved to shut down its manufacturing operations.
OptiSolar too had asked for a federal loan guarantee to complete work on its Sacramento thin-film solar cell plant but a decision on the $300 million application couldn’t come soon enough to save the startup. “We continued to be unable to find a buyer for the technology and manufacuring business, and the board of directors decided that we needed to limit ongoing operational expense,” wrote OptiSolar spokesman Alan Bernheimer in an e-mail.
First reported by the San Francisco Chronicle’s David Baker, OptiSolar will shut down factories in Sacramento and Hayward, Calif., and lay off 200 workers. Earlier this month, OptiSolar sold its pipeline of solar power plants – including a 550-megawatt solar farm that will supply electricity to PG&E (PCG) – to rival First Solar in a $400 million stock deal. At the time, OptiSolar said it intended to focus on manufacturing solar modules.
The news was definitely brighter Friday for Solyndra, which emerged from stealth mode last September with $600 million in funding and $1.2 billion in orders for its solar panels composed of cylindrical tubes imprinted with solar cells. Conventional rooftop solar panels must be tilted to absorb direct sunlight as they aren’t efficient at producing electricity from diffuse light. But the round Solyndra module collects sunlight from all angles, including rays reflected from rooftops. That allows the modules, 40 to a panel, to sit flat and packed tightly together on commercial rooftops, maximizing the amount of space for power production.
The $535 million federal loan guarantee will allow the Fremont, Calif.-based company to build a second factory, which is expected to create 3,000 construction jobs and more than 1,000 other jobs once the plant is in operation. The factory will be able to produce 500 megawatts’ worth of solar panels a year.
“The DOE Loan Guarantee Program funding will enable Solyndra to achieve the economies of scale needed to deliver solar electricity at prices that are competitive with utility rates,” Solyndra CEO Chris Gronet said in a statement. “This expansion is really about creating new jobs while meaningfully impacting global warming.”
Friday’s grant makes good on Secretary of Energy Steven Chu’s pledge to speed up processing of renewable energy loan guarantee applications. The department had come under fire during the previous administration for taking years to dole out grants and loan guarantees for electric car and green energy projects.
Meanwhile, First Solar (FSLR) announced on Friday that it had manufactured 1 gigawatt of thin-film solar cells since beginning commercial production in 2002. It took the Tempe, Ariz., company six years to hit 500 megawatts and only eight months to produce the second 500 megawatts. First Solar’s annual production capacity will reach 1 gigawatt by year’s end, according to the company.
OptiSolar had a lousy, out of date technology (amorphous silicon on glass).
Solyndra may be as bad as optisolar, but it’s harder to tell. This is kind of a bad situation – and no way the government is going to assert who is better except through some metrics which are probably pretty poor.
But it will save some ignorant investors from Silly Valley, who put money into a bunch of losers.
I did some research on all these people involved and they ALL come from companies that ALL have and have had all-male executives and upper-management tiers. This speaks volumes on so many levels especially in the industry sector and demographic they work and live in.
Daystar should be looked at since they appear to the have a solid viable technology whose efficiency rates will simply increase with flexibility all around.
Now, get some real money managers in there and startup their 25MW facility already instead of dry promises.
What a wonderful field… one person complaints about a glass ceiling with no actual evidence of discrimination. Another is thrilled that people won’t be suckered into dumb investments even though the government is making us all unwilling investors. And all around, we have a lot of money being spent with VERY questionable results.
This whole alternative energy business seems similar to the internet craze of the past decade or two.
Great ideas attracting an awful lot of money. And eventually over capacity.
This is leading to an excellent play in stocks as long as you can remember to pull your money out when the market starts to peak.
Once a majority of the alternative energy companies stocks start to climb, it’s time to climb on board that train. Just remember to get off before that train reaches the last station.
Ladies and gentlemen start your portfolios!
JB
Are you complaining about subsidies to renewable energy? If so, you are not looking at the whole picture.
The railroads were built with about half the funds coming from subsidies.
The internet was built with subsidies of about $400 billion over 35 years.
The oil industry has been subsidized since 1918, and according to a leading expert on energy subsidies, not one subsidy has ever been phased out. Oil now gets $39 billion/year.
Coal was getting $8 billion/year before recent additions to that.
I forget what the new amount is but a few billion more anyway.
Nuclear has gotten $500 billion over 50 years