California Solar Panel Plant Going “Bust” Despite $535 M Stimulus Bailout

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California Solar Panel Plant Going “Bust” Despite $535 M Stimulus Bailout

Written By : Jane Jamison

Obama’s Expensive “Green” Project is Epic “RED-INK” Fail in California

One Billion Dollars Wasted in Fremont, CA –“Where are the Customers?”

Solyndra Bail-out Merits Congressional Investigation

Inconvenient truth for President Barack Obama, California Governor Jerry Brown, Senators Feinstein and Boxer:

Solyndra Solar Panel plant in Fremont, California has wasted a billion dollars, $535 million of those a direct bailout from U.S. taxpayers, and it is going “bust.”

The Solyndra Solar panel plant in Fremont, California served as the convenient “backdrop” for Barack Obama’s “green economy” speeches in California, and other campaigning Democrats.

Flashback, 8 months ago:

“The promise of clean energy isn’t just an article of faith,” Obama said, “It’s not just some abstract possibility for science fiction movies or a distant future or 10 years down the road or 20 years, it’s happening right now. The future is here.” – President Obama, speaking at Solyndra Solar.

There were warning signs of the President’s hypocrisy. For example, the “inconvenient optic,” non-union Solyndra workers, were told to “stay home” with no pay on the day of Obama’s plant tour and speech.

Never one to let the facts get in the way of a photo op, Democrat Barbara Boxer shamefully shilled for the “green” Solyndra “cause” prior to her re-election.

That was “then,” a billion dollars ago, ($535 million of those dollars are a bailout from the 2009 “stimulus” bill ) this is now. The “green” industry is propped up by government subsidies, it has no basis in science, it’s not economic, and most of all, NOBODY is buying “green,” at least not in big enough numbers to make it a viable business.

Just one day after the November election, after the company had just served its “duty” as the “green” “success story” of Democratic energy policy, came the “shocking” admission that Solyndra was actually in deep financial trouble:

“Shocking Layoffs At Solyndra After $535 Million Bailout”

By Daya Baran at November 03, 2010

“Solyndra, the poster child of green energy in Silicon Valley, that was going to create the jobs of the future, announced that it will layoff 17.5% of its workers just one day after the elections. The company received $535 million in U.S. tax payer bailout to create jobs. President Obama and Senator Barbara Boxer visited and campaigned at the plant.”

Stop wasting taxpayer dollars on “green” projects that have no basis in reality: What has happened in Fremont, California is a failure of epic proportions that should not be repeated over and over again.

China, whose murderous dictator was just wined and dined as a “friend” at the White House, has determined to put the American “green” industry out of business by heavily subsidizing its own competing industries in solar panels and wind turbines. America, no matter how much it cuts costs, cannot compete with SLAVE LABOR. We will never win a “price-point” war with China.

Something needs to change. Free trade with China as it is now, MUST end. We are subsidizing China’s military, while they restrict what they allow their own people to buy from us.

Free trade is a fraud on the American worker.

Exhibit “A” is what has just happened in Fremont, California: Read it all here at San Jose Mercury News.

Here are just a few excerpts:

Solyndra canceled its plans for an IPO in June, citing “adverse market conditions.” Then in July, Chris Gronet, the company’s founder, was replaced as CEO by Brian Harrison. Gronet remains at the company and chairs the board of directors.

[…]

Harrison’s first big move was to shut down Solyndra’s older factory, consolidating production in Fab 2, the newer Fremont factory, and disrupting the company’s plans to add 1,000 jobs.

[…]

“The company says it shipped 60 megawatts worth of panels last year and expects to double that quantity this year. One megawatt of power is enough to power about 200 California homes.

But analysts question whether it can capture enough of the market.

“At the end of the day, customers pay the bills,” [Ramesh Misra, a semiconductor and solar energy analyst at Brigantine Advisors ]said. “Where are their customers? That’s where the story starts to unravel. Solyndra is a disaster waiting to happen.”

The bottom line is…..the bottom line:

“Many low-cost Chinese manufacturers, which benefit from massive government support, are manufacturing at costs in the $1.10 to $1.20 a watt range. Thin-film leader First Solar, based in Tempe, Ariz., manufactures at 75 cents a watt and aims to be at 53 cents a watt by 2014. Solyndra says its current manufacturing costs are about $3 per watt.”

Greg Pollowitz of National Review Online has been asking for an investigation in the Department of Energy’s $535 million bailout of Solyndra. Agree. A round of subpoenas is way overdue. House Republicans, are you listening?

Sources:

Brian Sussman, Human Events: “Why the Government Should Stay Out of Green Energy”

New York Times

UPI

Christian Science Monitor

Flashback, Obama on Solyndra:

Cross-posted at UNCOVERAGE.net

Anonymous

They better check with Spain ,they are cutting back on green jobs!
It seems for every green job cost two regular ones .
http://theatleeappeal.com/ David Atlee

In order to be a liberal, you must check economic logic at the door. There’s no other explanation for the stupidity people like Obama perpetuates on a daily basis. “Uhh, uhh, uhh, we need energy that doesn’t uhh, uhh, uhh, emit carbon.” But sir, those types of energies aren’t efficient enough to meet the energy demands of this country. “Uhh, uhh, well, uhh, we should have to cut back, uhh, because, uhh, you know, you can’t just leave the thermostat on 68 all Summer. We should cut back on our consumption.”

theatleeappeal.com
Anonymous

Solar companies are given all sorts of incentives from tax breaks to outright handouts from the government, they enjoy amazing PR to the extent that many folks would even be willing to pay more to use their product, and all the raw materials they need falls from the sky for free.

And they are still unable to even break even.

Compare that to the oil industry that has to import it’s product from often openly hostile sources, where it then requires a tremendous amount of effort to turn in to a usable fuel, they are hated by the general public, and hamstrung by environmental laws. And they are still able to turn a profit.
Either every single solar plant in the country is managed by total incompetents or the industry itself is unable to compete with more established energy sources.
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/6LBOTTXLWWGPKRINIBFFLAAQEM Reckless

I priced out a solar shingle system that would provide me with 1250 KWhs a month to cut my electric bill in half. I found it would cost $30,000 to put in and I would have to replace the batteries three times over 30 years at $7,000 each time for another total of $21,000. So, in order to ‘save’ half my energy bill (about $1200 a year) I would have to spend $51,000 which would be spread over thirty years of financing. The result is it would cost me $1,700 a year to ‘save’ $1200 a year.

So I would lose $500 dollars a year every year because solar panel are a third more expensive than oil/gas/coal/nuclear.

Why would anyone buy that?