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#1 nimblebear

nimblebear

    Welcome to the Dark Side !

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Posted 31 August 2011 - 07:31 PM

3rd US firm bites dust, after China competition causes prices to drop 25%. US Solar Company That Obama Visited Will Shut Down Published: Wednesday, 31 Aug 2011 | 3:23 PM ET Text Size By: Reuters Twitter U.S. solar start-up Solyndra, succumbing to pressure from lower-cost Chinese rivals, said it has suspended operations and plans to file for bankruptcy protection, 15 months after President Barack Obama visited a company factory that was to be expanded with the help of a federal loan guarantee. Source: Solyndra Solyndra's headquarters in Fremont, Calif. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Chapter 11 filing, expected next week, will make Solyndra the third U.S. solar company to seek bankruptcy protection in the last month. Former Wall Street high-flyer Evergreen Solar filed for Chapter 11 two weeks ago, followed four days later by SpectraWatt, a private company that was backed by Intel [INTC 20.13 -0.11 (-0.54%) ]. U.S. Representative Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce said the bankruptcies "are unfortunate warnings that the United States is in danger of losing its leadership position in the clean energy economy of the future ... We should be doing everything possible to ensure the United States does not cede the renewable energy market to China and other countries." In a press release on Wednesday, Solyndra said it could not compete with bigger overseas rivals. Earlier this year, cuts to generous solar subsidies in No. 2 market Italy stalled development of solar projects and led to a global glut of solar panels that sparked a 25 percent drop in prices. Even industry heavyweights, such as China's Suntech Power [STP 5.25 -0.01 (-0.19%) ] and U.S.-based First Solar [FSLR 99.98 -1.95 (-1.91%) ], are struggling with dwindling profits, while small, up-and-coming solar companies are finding it increasingly difficult to stay afloat. Solyndra said it was evaluating options, including a sale of the business and licensing its copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) technology. About 1,100 employees are being laid off immediately, it said in a statement. A company spokesman said the bankruptcy filing would likely come early next week in Delaware. "Swimming Upstream" Solyndra simply could not compete with "Chinese firms that have received billions of dollars in low-cost loans from state banks, and have access to a well-developed domestic supply chain for solar manufacturing," GTM Research analyst Shyam Mehta said. The company's relatively unproven CIGS technology was another key reason for its demise, he added. "Solyndra has been swimming upstream ever since it entered the market," Mehta said. The announcement is the latest in a series of disappointments for Solyndra, whose fall from grace has been tracked closely because it received a $535 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy in 2009. The company also made headlines in May 2010, when Obama paid a visit to the company's Fremont, Calif., factory. ---------------------------------------------------------- My comments to the above: So why is there still yet to date, very little solar panel adoption ? A: Its still WAY too expensive, and all the chatter about how mass manufacturing will drop prices, which will then spur more purchases is obviously all a big charade. Want to know why this model doesn't work ? Government interference. And utility obfuscation. Subsidization, for a long time, encouraged companies to keep prices high, as people would only buy some systems with 30% federal rebate, plus state rebate. Even still prices too high, for the consumer, but my point is subsidies do nothing to spur the market, and only delay manufacturers from investing in better techology to really drop the prices. Case in point: TV's and many other appliances dropped in price, or gave more features without subsidies. Do people NEED tv's. No . But they feel they WANT them. Why do they want them ? Entertainment or some other value. So Solar PV's need to deliver more value or in otherwords prices need to drop by several fold, not just a few percent. P.S. Im an engineer and have contemplated solar. But the problem as always is inconvenience and price. At 10 cents per kwhr, which is my retail all in rate, payback on a system is out 18 years. Even if I get federal tax credit. and thats buying the panels at like a very cheap $1.74/watt. The issue is not just the panels, but the installation costs, and the permitting process and all the other regulation and obstacles out there. I got to hire a union guy, who demands too much for his meager services, as he's the only certified guy the utility will allow. The utility has to inspect it, and then provide net metering if tied to the grid. If off-grid, then I need a very expensive battery set up for storage, and a system sized properly for the outlets I can cover. It then becomes prohibitively expensive to size the system for peak usage, that may only occur a couple hours during the summer. Then what do i do during winter, or cloudy days ? Generator back up supplied by propane or NG ? Thats another huge chunk out of my pocket. So my response to the above article, and Obama's visit to this plant to give the illusion of future prosperity, and jobs in clean energy is a resounding " BIG FAT DUH ! " Anyone who can do the math, knows the US solar PV facility had no snowball's chance in hell to make this work. Never, ever, ever. Yet the US gubbermint, threw away Half billion to fund this garbage. Some people got some jobs for awhile and now they back on the street. No jobs, and few skills that apply elsewhere. There is no "clean tech" or solar economy here. Thus until: a) Electric prices surge over at least 25 cents per kwhr or roughly twice to 3 times what they are here in the midwest B) Utilities allow simple off the shelf interconnect to be plug and play by the consumer c) Utilities don't require inspections d) Unions or specialized installers aren't required e) hell freezes over There will be no mass market for solar, and only niche markets for people already living off grid in rural, who have little other choice, solar cute kits for things like Solar lights outside your house on the sidewalk or garden, or solar used by universities and governments who can spend OPM or taxpayer dollars that shouldn't be spent in the first place on garbage like this. And so until such time, I don't want to hear ANY politician talk doublespeak about "green energy" or solar, or any renewable, until such time that they also stop subsidizing utilities, allowing monopolies, and creating a real environment for US businesses to thrive, not inadvertently foster China's businesses who will temporarily undercut, run ours out of business, and they themselves fail later on, bc they have no clue how to do anything other than copy, corrupt, and destroy, rather than truly innovate, build, and sustain.
OTIS.