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Posted on 03/21/2011 8:54:12 PM PDT by doug from upland
Thin-film solar-panel maker Solyndra will announce today it plans to close its Fab 1 plant in Fremont, Calif., The New York Times has reported.
The closing will result in 40 Solyndra employees being laid off. Another 150 subcontractors will not have their current work contracts renewed, according to the report.
But the news follows the opening of Solyndra's state-of-the-art Fab 2 plant near its original Fremont plant just weeks ago, which was built in part with a $535 million federal loan guarantee from the Department of Energy.
The Fab 2 plant, when fully operational, is capable of producing 500-megawatts worth of thin-film solar panels per year and employing about 1,000 people.
Solyndra makes thin-film flexible solar cells from CIGS (copper, indium, gallium, and selenide), not traditional photovoltaic cells made with silicon. Thin-film solar cells are typically less efficient than silicon solar cells, but because they have also been traditionally cheaper to install they maintained a competitive edge in the solar marketplace.
But a changing thin-film solar market, as well as a significant drop in the cost of traditional silicon solar cells, has changed that dynamic.
Solyndra has raised a total of $970 million in financing, and received another $573 million in the form of a loan guarantee from the Department of Energy, money that was appropriated in the Energy Act of 2005. The Department of Energy and the White House has held Solyndra up as a prime example of U.S. green-tech manufacturing innovation, investment, and job creation. President Obama made his "We've got to go back to making things" speech in May from the Fab 2 plant during a visit.
Concurrent with Solyndra's funding and ramp-up to production, several thin-film solar manufacturers in China have also been ramping up manufacturing in large part because of the Chinese government's well-documented push to invest in green tech.
Chinese thin-film solar manufacturer Suntech, for example, has announced several tech partnerships it says have improved the efficiency of its thin-film solar cells, as well as increased production volume resulting in significantly lower costs for its products.
In April PricewaterhouseCoopers, Solyndra's auditor, said the company was in debt at a rate that was unsustainable and needed to make significant adjustments if it was to be profitable long-term. In July the company canceled its planned IPO and announced that Solyndra founding CEO Chris Gronet would be stepping down to be replaced by Brian Harrison.
The decrease in cost to install conventional PVs, combined with this recent introduction of cheaper thin-film solar products from China, has been closing the competitive gap. Solyndra's high-tech Fab 2 plant will reduce production costs compared to its old facility, Harrison told The New York Times.
"Fab 2 is much more efficient and cost-effective than our existing facility," he said.
Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20021624-54.html#ixzz1HIS39ISl
This was nothing more than a scam. Obama and Biden visited this plant. They simply used this as cover to funnel huge amounts of our money to their donor.
All those “green jobs” are starting to wilt. It was about the money. It has always been about the money.
Old news but worth repeating.
>manufacturers in China have also been ramping up manufacturing in large part because of the Chinese government’s well-documented push to invest in green tech.
Yellow journOlism at its best.
China is not investing, it is staying out of the way of its own manufacturers
This company will be bankrupt within two years. Top management, of course, will receive millions in compensation and bonuses before it goes under.
>> “We’ve got to go back to making things”
From a guy that never skinned a knuckle in his life.
Maybe they can put up a sign:
“Obama pissed (away a lot of taxpayer money) here”
Obama is like Tom Pendergast, Harry Truman’s old boss. He and his friends skim the cream off the milk and leave blue-john for everyone else.
Shoulda invested in oil shale.
I agree..you make your product so expensive that no one can afford it, then your company is a scam.
Even if people can afford the solar panels with nanny state assistance, they can't afford the army they have to hire to keep the equipment from being stolen...it's just not worth the cost for the average person. The whole thing is a circus sideshow.
With the Federal and State Govt’s poring money into it..they are good for a while. The people who benefit from the money are big homeowners with big electrical bills. The taxpayers and ordinary rate payers pay the bill. Really regressive.
“Fab 2 plant can produce 500-megawatts worth of thin-film solar panels per year and employ 1,000 people.”
I started my career off at Babcock & Wilcox where we produced THOUSANDS of megawatts of boiler and related auxiliary equipment capacity every year with far fewer people than that!
Silly Con Valley ping
ping
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Were they hiring minority workers?
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