Free Republic

NBC is reporting on yet another green scheme going belly-up and this one is a big one. Scott McGrew reports: Solyndra, a major manufacturer of solar technology in Fremont, has shut its doors, according to employees at the campus. "I was told by a security guard to get my [stuff] and leave," one employee said. The company employs a little more than 1,000 employees worldwide, according to its website. Solyndra was touted by the Obama administration as a prime example of how green technology could deliver jobs. The President visited the facility in May of last year and said "it...

Solyndra, the first recipient of a loan from the Department of Energy, told us that it thinks it will produce solar panels at a price that's competitive with standard sources of energy in the next 2-3 years. "We see a clear path," says Kelly Truman, the VP of marketing, sales and business development, "and in 2-3 years we'll hit grid parity." We spoke with Truman yesterday who said the $535 million loan from the DOE will finance 73% of a new factory, though he declined to say how the company would pay for the remainder of the project. The current...

Wracked by debt but blessed with abundant sunshine, Greece plans to develop some 20,000 hectares of solar power parks in a bid to export renewable energy to Germany, a report said on Saturday. Top-selling Ta Nea daily said the project, which has a tentative budget of 20 billion euros ($29 billion), could create 60,000 jobs at a time when Greece is battling a deep recession and record unemployment figures. Germany is looking for alternative energy sources after chancellor Angela Merkel's government decided to shut down all 17 of the country's nuclear reactors over 11 years, following the disaster at the...

It’s tough times for the solar power “industry” in the United States and Down Under. How tough? The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports, “The only Australian company which manufactures solar cells is closing the operation. Ilex Solar has announced it will stop making the cells at its western Sydney facility, with 30 jobs to be lost. The company will continue to make solar panels, using imported components.” “In other words, solar isn’t viable unless solar-equipped households get lots of money from other taxpayers,” responds writer and blogger, Tim Blair of The Daily Telegraph, Sydney. More bad news from The Australian: “Industry...

(CNSNews.com) - The U.S. Export-Import Bank, an independent agency of the federal government, says that it has $500 million in loans in the “pipeline” to fund new solar energy projects—in India. The $500 million in new loans will come on top of $75 million in financing that the Export-Import Bank has already provided this year for solar power projects in India. “In fiscal year 2011 to date, the Bank has approved financing totaling approximately $75 million for four solar projects in India,” the bank said in a July 18 press release. “The Bank also has about $500 million of India...

Driver escapes seconds before solar vehicle explodes Nick Sitts was driving a solar vehicle north along 15th Street toward the formation area of the da Vinci Days parade shortly after 11 a.m. Saturday when he heard a pop. Moments later there was an explosion, and soon the $100,000 vehicle was engulfed in flames. Sitts got out just in time - right after he heard that initial pop, said Hai Yue Han, co-captain of the Oregon State University Solar Vehicle Team, which constructed the vehicle from 2008 to 2010.

White House misses deadline for solar panels By: Darius Dixon June 21, 2011 09:17 AM EDT The official onset of summer signals the Obama administration's unmet deadline to install solar panels at the world's most famous address: 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced in October that after a nearly three-decade hiatus. the White House would once again have a solar water-heating system mounted on its roof, as well as photovoltaic cells. Chu said the panels would be up “by the end of this spring." Spring ended Monday, and the panels aren't there. "The Energy Department remains on the...

In the current issue of Forbes, I write about how the iconic and imperiled desert tortoise could prove problematic for some of the dozen big solar power plants approved for construction in the Mojave Desert in California and Nevada. In April, federal officials, for instance, ordered BrightSource Energy to halt work on part of its 370-megawatt Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System after biologists found more desert tortoises at the project than the 32 predicted. Revised projections had estimated there could be as many as 162 adult tortoises and 608 juvenile tortoises on the 5.6-square-mile construction site in the Mojave Desert...

The Obama administration told CNSNews.com Thursday that it is currently in the process of procuring solar panels to place on the White House roof but it cannot discuss the progress on the project because of "sensitivities." “The solar installations on the residence will be part of a Department of Energy project to demonstrate American solar energy technology and know-how,” DOE Spokeswoman Jen Stutsman told CNSNews.com in an e-mail. “The project will show that American solar technology is available, reliable, and ready to install in homes throughout the country.”

Energy Policy: The former governor of energy-rich Alaska calls the administration's bluff: End tax breaks for all forms of energy, she says, and let the free market pick winners and losers. End the ethanol pandering too. She isn't running, or riding, for president, at least not yet. But at a stop on her One Nation bus tour, Sarah Palin offered a winning idea for an economy strapped for energy and jobs and saddled with unsustainable debt. "I think all our energy subsidies need to be re-looked at today and eliminated," Palin told Scott Conroy of Real Clear Politics during a...

Researchers at the University of Michigan have made a scientific discovery that is intriguing all on its own but it is the breakthrough’s potential applications in solar power generation that have them excited. According to Stephen Rand, a professor at the university and author of the paper that discusses his team’s discovery in the “Journal of Applied Physics”, the researchers found a way to make an “optical battery” which harnesses the magnetic attributes in light that, until now, scientists didn’t think amounted to much of anything. The report explains that light has both electric and magnetic components but, until now,...

NEW YORK – New York City plans to build solar power plants on capped landfills and launch a loan program to help property owners pay for green energy efficiency upgrades. ... Mayor Michael Bloomberg plans to announce the update Thursday. .. ... The city also plans to use $40 million in federal stimulus funds to launch the New York City Energy Efficiency Corporation to help property owners get financing for green improvements.

California is the solar capital of the U.S., if not the world. There are now more than 72,000 systems in the state, generating an estimated 724 megawatts of power. Agriculture is embracing solar just as rapidly as other industries and municipalities. There are too many incentives, finanancial and otherwise, for producers not to grab sunbeams.

Back in the ‘90s, there was a concerted effort among movie producers to develop a new Superman film. Few of the people involved were devoted to the comic. A plethora of treatments floated around, each of which left much to be desired.One of the ideas that came and went was that Lex Luthor and the evil alien Brainiac would somehow blot out the sun, the source of Superman’s power, and unleash the monster Doomsday to kill him. I was reminded of this loony plot element recently when a friend forwarded me a peculiar story about a woman who now claims...

While in Australia, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton got together with Prime Minister Julia Gillard and made a wonderful announcement about how they would be striving to get Solar Power plants to a level where they can compete with current conventional Power Plants. To make these Solar Photovoltaic plants competitive, all they need to do is pass legislation to make the Sun shine directly over these plants for the full 24 hours of every day.

(VIDEO AT LINK) President Obama and Arnold Schwarzenegger at the Solyndra plant in May. The second part is here. The third part is here. From Green Beat: Troubled solar panel maker Solyndra announced the company will close its first factory to save $60 million in operating expenses, and will lay off 40 workers just seven weeks after opening their second plant, a $733 million facility. The company’s CEO Brian Harrison said the new facility is more cost-efficient than the old one, according to the New York Times, which first reported the story. The company has fallen on hard times, in...

Siobhan Hughes discusses plans to build the world's largest solar plant, approved by the U.S. on Monday. Alternative energy companies are racing to start solar projects before federal incentives expire at year's end.

A proposal to build the world's biggest solar-thermal power plant in the Southern California desert got the go-ahead Monday from the Obama administration, which used the announcement to bolster its message that renewable energy creates jobs. The $6 billion project is being developed by Solar Trust of America, a joint venture between Germany's Solar Millennium AG and privately held Ferrostaal AG on 7,025 acres of federally owned land near Blythe, Calif. The approval clears the way for the developers to seek federal grants and loan guarantees.The Obama administration has been criticized over the past year for hurting job creation by...

WASHINGTON — Solar power is coming to President Barack Obama's house. The most famous residence in America, which has already boosted its green credentials by planting a garden, plans to install solar panels atop the White House's living quarters. The solar panels are to be installed by spring 2011, and will heat water for the first family and supply some electricity. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced the plans Tuesday in Washington at a conference of local, state, academic and nonprofit leaders aimed at identifying how the federal government can improve its environmental performance.

With the ramping up of rhetoric regarding the move to a Renewable Electricity Standard, just how effectively can Wind Power and Solar Power deliver a constant and regular supply of electrical power? This post uses the most current Government statistics to show conclusively that both these forms of Renewable Power fail, and that they fail comprehensively to deliver power, not only for when it is needed the most, but for all the time.