When the company received the loan, the President spoke from their newest plant and said that this would create jobs, stimulate the economy, and help make the push toward going green. Well the President couldn’t have been more wrong. Not even a year later Solyndra filed Chapter 11 and laid off nearly 1,000 employees. So this loan did not do anything Mr. Obama said it would, instead it did the opposite. The tax payers are now left hanging and may never recover the money loaned. You might be wondering how much of our tax dollars were loaned to this out-of-the-blue company? Well you might be shocked to learn that Mr. Obama loaned them $535 million.

What was Solyndra?

Solyndra was the administration’s pet project. They wanted a green energy company to create solar energy panels and compete with

the Chinese. On its own, Solyndra would not have had the resources it needed to effectively compete. President Obama figured that if he tossed some money their way, they might stand a better chance.

What Happened?

Once the President signed the check and delivered it to Solyndra, he was wasting money. Solyndra had a business plan that made literally no sense. They were trying to sell panels for a price that wasn’t even comparable to market price. Further more, the entire solar panel or green energy sector is a hit or miss. The demand for these types of things just isn’t high enough. According to a Press Release from the company when they announced they were laying off 1,000 employees and filing for bankruptcy, ” “Despite strong growth in the first half of 2011 and traction in North America with a number of orders for very large commercial rooftops, Solyndra could not achieve full-scale operations rapidly enough to compete in the near term with the resources of larger foreign manufacturers.”

This has taught us a serious lesson. If we as a nation want to achieve green success and become leaders in the green industry, then we have to stand behind these companies. That doesn’t mean just writing them a blank check. It means investing wisely in companies
that show strength, giving tax breaks to people who are purchasing green goods from these companies, and rallying around the theory of “going green”. In the case of Solyndra, we did none of these, and as a result they failed and the tax payers lost out.

Sources

1) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/charles-gasparino/solyndra-scandal_b_980050.html

2) http://gigaom.com/cleantech/the-story-behind-solyndras-rise-and-fall/

3) http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/the-solyndra-story-keeps-unfolding/