“Solyndra, a California-based solar panel manufacturer, declared bankruptcy in August 2011 after having received $528 million in federal loan guarantees”(The New York Times, Nov 17, 2011). Solyndra is a company that has a negative stigma and is part of a huge scandal. Clean energy and solar panels are becoming extremely prevalent in our everyday lives, and the fact that Solyndra declared bankruptcy is a pretty big scandal.
“The loan guarantees, part of the 2009 stimulus package, were the first to be allocated out of 18$ billion Congress has committed to dole out. But the failure of Solyndra-which could cost taxpayers more than half- billion dollars has renewed the highly partisan debate in Washington over the benefits or failures of Mr. Obama’s stimulus program and the wisdom of clean energy subsides in general”(The New York Times, Nov 17, 2011). It is amazing how in order to bring back Solyndra taxpayers will have to pay, which ultimately makes this quite the scandal.
The problem according to outsiders is ” the product looked better when it was conceived than when it hit the market. Solyndra’s design avoided the use of silicon, a commodity that was selling at very high prices in 2009 when the loan guarantee was approved but that since crashed. The design also sought to cut costs with an innovative cylindrical design that reduced the labor required for installation. But the capital costs for manufacturing were high”(The New York Times, Nv 17, 2011).
Below is a great video about the Solyndra Scandal from CNN.
GOP suggests Solyndra cover up
Forbes will say that they saw this failure of Solyndra coming, an they say that it was easy to predict. “Three’s quite a bit of back and forth across the political aisle about Solyndra. Does throwing &500 million at a company that failed show that all government tech pump priming is a waste of money? From the other side, well, sure, some will fail but the program as a whole is going to deliver just great results”(Tim Worstall, Forbes.com).
Below is a visual of how the Solyndra panels work:
Work Cited:
“Solyndra – The New York Times.” Times Topics – The New York Times. 17 Nov. 2011.Web. 19 Feb. 2012. <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/solyndra/index.html>.
“Video – Breaking News Videos from CNN.com.” CNN.com – Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. 14 Oct. 2011. Web. 19 Feb. 2012. <http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/politics/2011/10/14/tsr-sylvester-gop-solyndra.cnn>.
Worstall, Tim. “Solyndra: Yes, It Was Possible To See This Failure Coming – Forbes.”Information for the World’s Business Leaders – Forbes.com. Forbes.com, 17 Sept. 2011. Web. 19 Feb. 2012. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2011/09/17/solyndra-yes-it-was-possible-to-see-this-failure-coming/>.