The theme of the week seems to be based on solar panels, as today I’ll be discussing a little bit about the Solyndra scandal that occurred in 2011.
The Solyndra company was based out of Fremont, California. You can read more on the company here:
Basically, the company was marketing a type of solar panel that was cylindrical. This allowed the panel to no only absorb direct light, but indirect (diffuse) light and reflected light as well. That means that these cylinders could generate more power than traditional panels.They looked like this:
Now, the company needed money and it got money.
Seriously.
In March of 2009, the company received $535 million dollars to build the plants that manufactured the cylinders.
However, two years later in August of 2011, Solyndra fired over a thousand employees without severance pay. Then they shut down all the manufacturing and production plants.
“Regulatory and policy uncertainties in recent months created significant near-term excess supply and price erosion. Raising incremental capital in this environment was not possible. This was an unexpected outcome and is most unfortunate.” stated the President and CEO of the company, Brian Harrison.
This exerpt came from a message posted in September on the Solyndra company website:
Here is a video with a very passionate man describing what is apparently wrong with the world, but I have to admit, he’s got some really good points.
Solyndra: Real Scandal is Dirty Energy Subsidies
What do you think? Is it wise for the government to create subsidies for companies? Is Solyndra just a worst-case scenario?
Where did all that money go?
The post was very concise and efficient. I liked how you didn’t waste you time and space on the basic information such as the company’s background and things like that. The links made it easy for us to go after the information in case we were interested…great job!!!
Very informative. And to answer your question, it is no secret that just before they went bankrupt, most of their employees got huge bonuses.
It is interesting to see a different idea on here, and I like the way it’s laid out. Just by reducing the weight of the car can increase efficiency, cool thought, good job.
The benefits of using RDF (refuse derive fuel)