Why You Should Care
The thin film solar panel maker received the first DOE loan guarantee, planned an IPO and filed for bankruptcy in 2011.
Solyndra
It’s been over a month since the Solyndra news came out, but it’s still dominating. Because it just won’t go away, here’s my top five list of projects that the DOE also backed with loan guarantees and that are showing some early signs of success. Read More »
Investors, including Steve Westly, cautioned the White House against visiting Solyndra’s factory, because the company seemed risky, according to emails. Read More »
U.S-listed Chinese public companies are facing growing scrutiny for their accounting practices, and that investigation has extended to cleantech businesses as well. The latest example comes from A-Power Energy Generation Systems, a Chinese wind turbine maker. Read More »
A Department of Energy loan guarantee program that has attracted unwanted attention through its Solyndra deal is ending today, and the DOE is marking the occasion by finalizing billions of dollars of loan guarantees to First Solar, SunPower and Prologis. Read More »
Our GigaOM Pro Green IT analyst Adam Lesser points out that U.S. solar manufacturers are preparing a complaint against China to be filed with the Department of Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission. Read More »
After years of incubation and at least $91.4 million of private capital, silicon cell maker SpectraWatt was sold to Canadian Solar for about $4.95 million during an auction. The sale is a dismal end for the Intel-backed company. Read More »
Solar thermal company Stirling Energy Systems has filed for bankruptcy, according to Renewable Energy World. Stirling Energy Systems developed solar concentrators based on stirling engines, which use the sun’s heat to produce electricity, and planned to build projects to sell the power to utilities. Read More »
More Must Reads
There is no escaping the dark spell cast by Solyndra’s bankruptcy in cleantech discussions these days. At two cleantech conferences in San Francisco this week, speakers gave their takes on the impact of the Solyndra controversy, from money flows to public perception. Read More »
Is the clean power industry not doing enough to win political support in the nation’s capital? While Solyndra has gotten flack for its significant lobbying efforts, the reality is that the industry should do more, not less. Read More »
On Friday, the DOE announced the closing of three loan guarantees, but also said solar installer SolarCity won’t be securing a loan guarantee for a military solar housing project. SolarCity said they lost the loan guarantee partly because of an investigation into the Solyndra loan. Read More »
The second congressional hearing on what happened with solar maker Solyndra concluded this morning, and Solyndra’s CEO and CFO aren’t talking. Right after CEO Brian Harrison and CFO Bill Stover were sworn in, they invoked their fifth amendment rights. Read More »
Solyndra’s bankruptcy has shined a harsh spotlight on a federal loan guarantee program, and that spotlight now includes a company that’s in better financial health than Solyndra. First Solar announced Thursday it won’t get a billion-dollar loan guarantee for a California solar project. Read More »
Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison and CFO Bill Stover have decided not to answer any questions during an upcoming hearing on Friday and plan to invoke the Fifth Amendment in the face of questioning, the company announced late on Tuesday. Read More »
By Adam Lesser
Sep. 20, 2011, 1:00pm PT
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A quick Google news search on Sunday of the term “Solyndra” produced 3,830 results, ahead of “Tom Cruise” (3,210) but still safely behind “Lady Gaga” (12,300). It’s fair to say that Solyndra’s bankruptcy and the ensuing congressional investigation into how Solyndra secured its loan guarantee has …
Sometimes tech trends end up disrupting huge industries, like when the idea of Skype and free web calls, collided with the phone companies. However, sometimes tech ideas have all the makings of these kind of disruptions but ultimately end up flaming out. Here’s why: Read More »
Solar thin-film startup HelioVolt has lined up Korean conglomerate SK Group as an equity investor as it tries to scale up and move into mass production. SK announced Monday that it’s made an equity investment of $50 million in HelioVolt. Read More »
Now for Today in Green IT, news, notes and musing from our GigaOM Pro Green IT analyst Adam Lesser. Nuclear power is falling in Germany and Japan, as corporations follow suit from country-wide protests and anti-nuclear politics. Read More »
Solar company JinkoSolar faced a huge, four-day protest against its toxic waste dumping practices at its factory in China over the weekend, during the same time when the company announced its sponsorship of the San Francisco 49ers. Read More »
Greentech has been like few other sectors in terms of its high reliance on government support. But, at the same time, a variety of companies are finding that accepting government support can sometimes be the wrong choice. Read More »
President Obama’s gotten hit with a one-two punch in recent weeks with two scandals that share some surprising similarities surrounding risky tech startups, politics, money and the question of how to create innovation around infrastructure, one for energy and the other for communications. Read More »
Silicon Valley solar thin-film startup, Stion, on Friday officially opened the door of its factory in Mississippi, marking a milestone for the company as it seeks to expand production quickly in an increasingly competitive market. Read More »
John Stewart brings you the Solyndra story in the true fashion of The Daily Show, proclaiming, “That custom-tailored Obama scandal you ordered is finally here.” To us in Silicon Valley, it shows just how big this story has gotten. Read More »
A new Y Combinator–style incubator that will focus solely on the intersection of energy and information technology is launching in Houston, the founder of the group, Kirk Brand Coburn, told me in an exclusive interview. Read More »
Amidst intense scrutiny of the Department of Energy’s loan guarantee program via the Solyndra scandal, September has still emerged as critical for a series of solar companies that hope to close federal loan guarantees and start construction on solar farms by the end of the month. … Read More »
Was the restructuring of Solyndra’s loan earlier this year, which was done by the DOE and subordinated government funds to private investors funds, against the law? Republicans suggested as much during a hearing on Wednesday. Read More »
Two and a half years ago we covered Canadian solar startup Sixtron Advanced Materials, which developed an anti-reflective coating system for solar cells. Fast forward to 2011, and Sixtron’s website is gone, its phones are discontinued and the company auctioned its assets off to pay creditors. Read More »
While DOE Loan Chief Jonathan Silver will testify before the House Energy Committee, Solyndra’s execs have decided to skip tomorrow’s hearing, and say they’ll testify the week of September 19th. We’ve interviewed Silver many times, particularly on Solyndra, including via this video in April 2011: Read More »
Does the Chinese government want to be a cleantech VC? That seems to be the case as the government announced a plan to invest directly or through venture capital funds in startups that are developing technologies including alternative energy and cars. Read More »
Are there other Solyndras waiting in the wings that could one day lose over a billion in funds to failed green technologies? Well, there are a couple of other green startups that have raised similarly massive private funds and DOE support. Read More »
While Senator Harry Reid indicated that President Obama would likely discuss clean energy jobs in his jobs speech, Obama’s speech contained only the very briefest mentions of anything green related. Is the President cooling on talk of clean energy jobs in the wake of Solyndra’s scandal? Read More »
Solyndra’s woes continue. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is searching Solyndra’s headquarters this morning, though it declined to say what it’s looking for. Read More »
The sale season is on for solar. SpectraWatt, which filed for bankruptcy last month, plans to hold a live auction of its silicon solar factory equipment on Sept. 28. Others will follow. Read More »
The largest residential rooftop in the U.S. history is coming. Energy Secretary Steve Chu announced its arrival on Wednesday with a partial guarantee of a $344 million loan to put solar panels on military housing and other buildings over the next five years. Read More »
While an uproar has arisen over the loan guarantees for solar from the U.S. Department of Energy (namely the one for Solyndra), another federal agency has also been making hundreds of millions of dollars worth of loans and loan guarantees to support the U.S. solar industry. … Read More »
As expected, beleaguered solar startup Solyndra has officially filed for bankruptcy. The company’s rise and fall has turned into the clean power controversy of the summer and increasingly ugly details continue to emerge. Read More »
By Adam Lesser
Sep. 6, 2011, 1:00pm PT
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When all was said and done, solar panel maker Solyndra raised over a billion dollars, making it No. 2 on the list of companies that have raised the most equity, according to a 2010 list from Dow Jones VentureWire. But unlike Facebook or MetroPCS, two other names on …
Greentech investing has been getting a series of one-two punches — will it soon be down for the count? According to the weekly update from out GigaOM Pro Green IT analyst Adam Lesser, while the ecosystem is looking darker, it’s also growing up. Read More »
If Apple launched one of its gadgets with embedded solar cells, it could revolutionize the market for solar. Read More »
Solar silicon and cell maker Calisolar has ditched a $275 million federal loan guarantee to build a factory in Ohio, but the company still has a manufacturing plan. It says it has secured a $75.25 million package from Mississippi to locate its factory there. Read More »
Here comes just the beginning of the fall out of solar company Solyndra’s bankruptcy: a class action lawsuit from employees, and disturbing details about how the government put a chunk of private funds in front of government loans during a refinancing of Solyndra earlier this year. Read More »
By Ucilia Wang
Sep. 2, 2011, 6:48pm PT
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Solar technology startup Solyndra, which has raised more than $1.5 billion in private and government funds, has suspended manufacturing and laid off 1,100 full-time and temporary employees. We conducted a survey and asked GigaOM readers for their views on the fallout of Solyndra’s decision to file …
Politicians, in office and retired, need to do their homework and pay special attention to connecting with tech and greentech startups. The majority of these companies won’t succeed. Read More »
In light of solar startup Solyndra’s announcement this week that the company plans to file for bankruptcy, we decided to turn to our readers to hear about what you think are the most important impacts and lessons learned. We got some very interesting feedback. Read More »
The solar factory shutdown trend continues with the announcement by Germany-based SolarWorld on Friday that it will shutter one of its factories in the United States to cut costs. Read More »
For the past four years I’ve been covering solar company Solyndra’s events, including its ground-breaking ceremony, and a more recent factory tour. Here are some of my photos from the past few years. Read More »
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