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Rich Lowry calls it “Obama’s Enron.” Over to you, House Republicans: House investigators said they have uncovered evidence that White House officials became personally involved in an Energy Department review of a hot-button $535 million loan guarantee to the now-failed California solar company Solyndra…“We have learned from our investigation that White House officials monitored Solyndra’s application and communicated with [Department of Energy] and Office of Management and Budget officials during the course of their review,” the letter says…“Here’s the bottom line,” [solar industry analyst Peter] Lynch said. “It costs them $6 to make a unit. They’re selling it for $3....

Solyndra might be bankrupt, but their website is still up: From the President's speech in 2010: Every day that you build this expanded facility, as you fill orders for solar panels to ship around the world, you’re demonstrating that the promise of clean energy isn’t just an article of faith -- not anymore. It’s not some abstract possibility for science fiction movies or a distant future -- 10 years down the road or 20 years down the road. It’s happening right now. The future is here.

Link only - Questions Raised After DOE Hides Costs Of Energy Projects Each project is listed in detail on the DOE's website, but the costs were recently taken down.

Solyndra LLC, a Fremont, Calif.-based solar panel maker, was partially funded by Tulsan George Kaiser. It had long been an administration favorite. Over the past two years, President Barack Obama and Energy Secretary Steven Chu each had made congratulatory visits to the company's headquarters. House Republicans and government auditors had questioned the wisdom of the administration's loan guarantees to the company, backed in part by capital from a group controlled by Kaiser, a billionaire Tulsa oilman, banker and Democratic fundraiser. The largest investor, according to a report by CNN Money, was the George Kaiser Family Foundation. The Treasury Department provided...

Solyndra Bankruptcy Could Dry Up Solar Industry FundingSeptember 1, 2011 8:37 AM FREMONT (KCBS) – While many venture capitalists remain bullish about solar companies, a Republican call for further investigation of how bankrupt Solyndra spent millions in federal loans could mean less public money for the solar industry. In February, the House Energy and Commerce Committee looked into how Solyndra won approval in 2009 for a $535 million Department of Energy loan guarantee. That investigation focused on one of the company’s investors, George Kaiser, who contributor to President Barack Obama’s campaign. Energy Department officials said the company’s application was carefully...

A solar energy company that intends to file bankruptcy received $535 million in backing from the federal government and has a cozy history with Democrats and the Obama administration, campaign finance records show. Shareholders and executives of Solyndra, a green energy company producing solar panels, fundraised for and donated to the Obama administration to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Tulsa billionaire George Kaiser, a key Obama backer who raised between $50,000 and $100,000 for the president’s election campaign, is one of Solyndra’s primary investors. Kaiser himself donated $53,500 to Obama’s 2008 election campaign, split between the DSCC...

In a blow to the Obama administration's efforts to create green jobs, solar-cell maker Solyndra announced Wednesday that it will close its remaining Fremont factory, lay off its 1,100 employees and file for bankruptcy. The bankruptcy represents a high-profile failure for a federal stimulus program that gives loan guarantees to green-tech manufacturers. Solyndra was the first company to win one of the guarantees, receiving $535 million in 2009. The federal government must now try to recover its investment through Solyndra's Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, or taxpayers will be on the hook. Employees were not offered severance and were told their...

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.