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
Media mogul Ted Turner says if he were to start over now as an entrepreneur, he would work in clean energy. Turner, who’s been investing in solar for the past few years, made the remarks at Google Zeitgeist this week. Read More »
One of the possible greentech IPOs on the horizon is looking a bit bullish. This week next-gen biofuel producer Amyris amended its S-1 saying it plans to raise up to $122 million in an IPO, up slightly from its previously planned max offering of $100 million. Read More »
SunEdison said Friday it has signed a memorandum of understanding with a provincial government in South Korea to install 400 megawatts of solar panels, a sizable project considering the country’s market shrank dramatically following a cut in incentives. Read More »
BrightSource Energy is close to securing approval from the California Energy Commission for its first commercial project to build a solar thermal power plant, and it’s lined up a hefty federal loan guarantee. Is it time for it to go public? Read More »
Here’s a yin and yang combo: power a building with the sun and store the energy overnight with ice. Solar panel maker Sunpower and Ice Energy announced on Thursday that they’ve teamed up to build a pilot project combining their technologies. Read More »
Can solar module producer Oerlikon inject new enthusiasm into amorphous silicon thin film technology, which until now has struggled to compete in cost and efficiency? The Swiss company hopes to do so with the launch Tuesday of a new line of factory equipment. Read More »
After years of talking about flexible, light-weight solar thin film material that can drape over roofs, manufacturers are finally starting to deliver. SoloPower is announcing on Tuesday that its first flexible solar panel has gotten UL certification, which is required for installation in many U.S. … Read More »
More Must Reads
Picking winners and losers is always a dicey exercise, but Lux Research took that plunge and issued a report this week, which points to likely revenue winners and IPO candidates over the coming year. The names that popped out include Amonix, Enphase Energy and Abound Solar. Read More »
Global Solar on Tuesday unveiled its new flexible solar panel that can be integrated into roofing membranes. The idea is that buildings and roofs can be built with the solar materials weaved right into them, lowering the cost and the time of the solar installation. Read More »
By Ucilia Wang
Aug. 25, 2010, 11:02am PT
Comments Off
UPDATE: As it turns out, Juwi Solar really likes MiaSole. The German power project developer has inked a multiyear, 600-megawatt agreement that calls for MiaSole to ship 50 megawatts in 2011 and more in the following years. Read More »
Can the stimulus money really help to drive down the price of solar electricity by half in the next five years? Yes, according to a White House report on Tuesday touting the impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. But think again. Read More »
Western Digital is introducing a new powerline home networking adapter today that’s specifically pitched as a way to get video into the living room. The WD Livewire Powerline AV Network Kit could be a good fit for people with Internet-ready TVs and set-top boxes. Read More »
By Jeff St. John
Aug. 17, 2010, 8:05am PT
Comments Off
Can cleantech companies cut millions of dollars from their capital needs by retrofitting old chip equipment to turn out brand-new products? If the advantages are anything close to what AQT Solar and Planar Energy claim, it very well could be the start of a new trend. Read More »
By Jeff St. John
Aug. 13, 2010, 12:00am PT
Comments Off
Looks like bad news for First Solar. The Washington Post reported Thursday that the thin film solar PV leader may not have actually secured that 2-gigawatt solar farm planned for China’s desert, which it announced back in September of 2009. Read More »
Happy greentech earnings day! Some major bellweathers of emerging green industries — including solar maker SunPower, LED company Cree, lithium ion battery firm A123 Systems, and solar wafer maker LDK — announced earnings today. Here’s are some important bits you should note. Read More »
You don’t necessarily need to be familiar with the subject matter of a spoof, if the execution of said spoof is good enough. Which is to say that even if you’re not a raging video game nerd,Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin’ is a delight. Read More »
In the midst of recent turmoil at solar panel maker Solyndra, including swapping out its CEO and shelving its IPO plans, the VC-backed startup has some good news: a deal to sell 18 rooftop solar systems, (16.2 MW), to utility Southern California Edison (SCE). Read More »
Molycorp, a company that controls one of the largest deposits outside China of a group of metals used in many green technologies, is off to a rocky start on the public markets after raising $393.8 million in its IPO today. Read More »
Solyndra, the solar startup that ditched its IPO dreams last month, is now swapping out its CEO. Brian Harrison, the former President and CEO of flash memory maker Numonyx, B.V, has replaced founding CEO Chris Gronet as Solyndra’s new CEO. Read More »
In the second quarter of 2010, greentech startups scored record venture capital and increased spending despite a weak economy. Solar power retained its lead in greentech venture financing, while global investment for clean energy asset financing fell. China, meanwhile, underscored its rising might in the greentech …
Today on the Net: About 300 million Chinese residents tune into video on the web, Adap.tv added multiple new publishers as customers of its ad platform and cable profits could be boosted by higher affiliate fees due to TV Everywhere services. Read More »
The Department of Energy has treated some companies unfairly in their bids to win loan guarantees for innovative energy tech, and risked “excluding some potential applicants unnecessarily,” according to a new report from the the watchdog arm of Congress. Read More »
Electric car maker Tesla officially delivered the biggest venture backed IPO of the quarter. What made the public debut different from some of the other venture-backed IPOs that happened this quarter? Well, among a variety of things, Tesla scored a $465 million loan from the government. Read More »
Here’s the big risk for utilities trying to meet California’s renewable portfolio standard, which calls for utilities to deliver 20 percent of their electricity from clean power by the end of 2010 and 33 percent by 2020: The clean power projects sometimes fall through. Read More »
Greentech startups raising money in the second quarter of this year can thank a few things for the solid quarter of venture financing: corporations, the generally weak IPO market (Tesla was the exception), and the solar industry. Read More »
By Katie Fehrenbacher
Jun. 30, 2010, 8:42am PT
Comments Off
While thin film solar startup Solyndra teed up an IPO, and then had to ditch it earlier this month, other thin film solar firms are still solidly stuck in neutral. Everyone’s still waiting for the announcement from HelioVolt to say that it has moved into commercial … Read More »
Tesla Motors’ shares ended their first day of trading up 40.5 percent over their $17 offering price, at $23.89. The electric car maker saw most of its gains late in the day, when the stock surged as high as $25. Read More »
Like two mismatched bookends, Tesla and Solyndra mark this week with one positive and one negative impression of how well early stage, unprofitable, risky greentech firms will fare on the public markets this year. Read More »
For Solyndra, looks like going public isn’t such a good plan after all. The solar company says tonight it has opted to raise $175 million by selling convertible promissory notes from existing investors instead of doing an IPO. Read More »
The march of the chipmakers into solar continues. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. — a heavyweight in contract chipmaking — announced Wednesday that it has signed a licensing agreement and has invested $50 million in Silicon Valley thin-film solar startup Stion. Read More »
The story of high efficiency solar photovoltaic panel maker SunPower puts the whole clean energy landscape into perspective. After 25 years in the business the company has been producing solar panels commercially for only about five years. Here’s our photos from the factory tour. Read More »
The Department of Energy this morning announced the tenth award for a clean energy project under the long delayed loan guaranteed program. Oregon-based U.S. Geothermal has won the latest award, on a conditional basis, for $102.2 million. Read More »
By Katie Fehrenbacher
Jun. 8, 2010, 9:30am PT
Comments Off
Solar tube maker, and Department of Energy-darling, Solyndra is showing off its largest installation in the U.S., on the rooftop of packaging company LPS Industries. The 704 kW system, which includes 3,800 Solyndra solar panels, is in Moonachie, New Jersey, and was installed in 4 weeks. Read More »
News coverage of Obama’s visit to Solyndra’s factory have been calling the DOE’s loan guarantee to Solyndra an example of how successful the Department of Energy’s clean power investment programs can be. But is it really? Read More »
President Obama stopped by the factory of thin film solar startup Solyndra Wednesday morning in Fremont, Calif., to give a speech touting how investments from the stimulus package have been creating green jobs, and said he would fight to pass climate change legislation this year. Read More »
Expect this summer to be a busy one for Jonathan Silver, the former venture capitalist whom the Obama administration tapped to head up the Department of Energy’s highly competitive loan guarantee and green car loan program. Here’s our interview with Silver: Read More »
Thin film startup MiaSole was once the posterchild of the over-hype of the CIGS solar world. Now its ramping up production, planning a new factory, developing next-gen solar shingles, and looking to hit a cost of fifty cents per watt for solar manufacturing. Read More »
Solar panels tend to be like Christmas tree lights: if one panel stops working, the whole string is affected. But startup eIQ Energy has a system that connecta solar panels in parallel instead of in a series, and the innovation is starting to gain some traction. Read More »
Online distribution site Blip.tv is aiming to engage with the local web series scene by opening an office in Los Angeles and hiring Epic Fu co-creator Steve Woolf to work directly with creators interested in using the Blip platform. Read More »
By Josie Garthwaite
May. 5, 2010, 11:08am PT
Comments Off
Doling out awards ASAP under the Department of Energy’s Loan Guarantee Program has been an ongoing theme for the agency under the Obama administration. One of the next steps to speed up the process will be bringing more of it online. Read More »
First Solar’s U.S. utility solar domination plans continue: this morning the thin film solar darling announced that it plans to acquire NextLight, which owns 1,100 MW worth of solar projects in the Southwest, for $285 million. Read More »
Clean technology investment has kept up its recession-beating pace so far this year. Will the front-running startups in the field find an exit? The cleantech sector shows continuing momentum — and that’s just what longtime VC investors need. Read More »
Solar firms like eSolar rely on computing to accurately set up and position mirrors in the deserts. But thin film solar maker Applied Quantum Technology (AQT) is looking to computers for an entirely different purpose: to adapt hard drive production machines to produce solar … Read More »
Where’s the innovation in solar these days? Here’s three young and stealthy solar startups that have been turning heads this week. Read More »
The end of the week is here so time to share the past week at Mobile Tech Manor with you, my friends. It was a typical week full of gadgets, software and good e-books. I used a different notebook each day and it went well. Read More »
Most Commented On Solyndra
Article Comments:
-
Ucilia Wang: PG&E can spend its own money to invest in SVTC, but what it was asking was p...
-
Stephen: I don't understand the statement about "PG&E wanted permission to invest $9....
Most Commented
Latest News On Solyndra
Popular Now
