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 »
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 ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
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 »
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 »
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 for bankruptcy and what the future holds for the company. This research examines the survey’s results. It also includes an analysis of Solyndra’s struggles over the past two years to move into mass production, and to do it amidst difficult and volatile economic conditions. Companies mentioned in this report include Evergreen Solar, First Solar and SpectraWatt. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
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 »
This week Solyndra announced plans to file for bankruptcy and said it will lay off 1,100 employees. How will the event impact the larger cleantech industry, greentech startup funding and the solar sector as a whole? We ask you to weigh in. Read more »
Solyndra’s bankruptcy is the worst outcome possible for a company that the DOE has touted as a game-changer and which received an unusual amount of government support and attention. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the nail in the coffin for the loan guarantee program. Read more »
Solyndra just became a high-profile casualty of the youthful solar industry as Solyndra failed to compete successfully against larger solar rivals in a global market that depends heavily on government subsidies. Here’s what went wrong. Read more »
After getting a $535 million federal loan guarantee for building a factory, solar thin-film startup Solyndra is going out of business. Solyndra has also raised close to a billion dollars in equity and loans and said it will file Chapter 11. Read more »
What can you do when profits are hard to come by and your targeted market hasn’t taken off? For Ascent Solar Technologies, that means selling a stake of the company and licensing its technology to a Chinese conglomerate. Read more »
The House Energy and Commerce Committee approved a resolution on Thursday to move forward with a subpoena for the Office of Management and Budget to get access to documents about the Department of Energy’s $535 million loan guarantee to solar maker Solyndra. Read more »
Welcome to the future of DIY clean power and electric vehicles. Solyndra engineer Michael Ahern electrified a Volvo 240 that he bought on Craigslist for $150 and has been charging it up with Solyndra tube-shaped solar panels on his roof in San Jose, Calif. Read more »
First Solar has become the biggest solar beneficiary of a federal renewable energy loan guarantee program. On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Energy announced three loan guarantee offerings totaling roughly $3.73 billion for First Solar’s three photovoltaic power plants in California. Read more »
SoloPower, which has gotten a federal loan guarantee offer to build a solar panel factory in Oregon, is now aiming for a close to $44 million equity round and has so far lined up about $15 million, according to a filing Wednesday. Read more »
Federal lawmakers held a hearing Friday to examine a federal agency’s role in approving renewable energy loan guarantees, particularly the $535 guarantee that went to solar panel maker Solyndra. Read more »
Solyndra, the thin film solar tube maker, has been planning on raising even more funds this year, and according to a filing on Thursday, has raised another $10.66 million in options, warrants or rights to acquire another security. Read more »
Amidst all of the champagne cork-popping, and bubble talk in the wake of the LinkedIn IPO Thursday morning (high-five to Reid Hoffman) I’ll offer up this downer of an article: the LinkedIn IPO is bad for cleantech. Read more »
After 10 years of technology development and lining up investors including Intel, solar thin film company Sulfurcell has retooled its business plan that includes a name change, a technology shift and a focus beyond selling solar panels, company executives said Thursday. Read more »
Electric car maker Fisker Automotive has already raised over $1 billion in equity, loans and grants. And yet, the company, which will be launching its first inaugural electric car this summer, has raised another $100 million. That’s on top of the $190 million which recently closed. Read more »
Cleantech investing: it’s no longer for the everyday general venture capital firm. Mass High Tech digs into data about 10 venture firms that made five or more new cleantech deals between 2003 and 2008, and then completely pulled back from new cleantech investments after 2008. Read more »
SunPower, a stalwart U.S. solar manufacturer in Silicon Valley, plans to sell 60 percent of the company to French oil and gas giant Total Group, the companies announced Thursday. SunPower will get much need financial backing through the deal. Read more »
Solyndra’s factory is now set to produce 200 MW of its tube-shaped solar panels annually, and the company hopes to boost that to 300 MW by 2013. Ramping that up will take another round of funding. Here are my photos of the factory tour: Read more »
TenKsolar, whose wave-like solar electric system design is a radical departure from conventional solar panels, is looking to close a round of funding in about two months, the startup’s founder and president, Dallas Meyer, told us. Read more »
Has Solaria finally hit its stride? The company is now on a path to expand production, and later this morning, it’s scheduled to celebrate the new dig with big-name guests such as California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and Sierra Club’s executive director Mike Brune. Read more »
Big investment firm Blackstone Group has reportedly shuttered its planned $500 million green fund after raising only $90 million – a sign that, amidst new green funds being raised, the sector’s weaknesses are also scaring some investors away. Read more »
A quick scan of the top cleantech deals for the near record first quarter, sent cold shivers up my spine. The deals may be getting done, but are we sure investors are making money? Three of the biggest deals represented 17 percent of the quarter’s dollars. Read more »
Greentech VC hit $2.5 billion in the first quarter of 2011, the second-highest quarter on record. Is that a sign of renewed investor confidence, or a sign that greentech IPOs are weak? Read more »
Developers of copper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS) solar panels may be finally making that leap to mass production, but they have a lot of catching up to do to be competitive. An NREL expert and Morgan Stanley analyst outlines some of the technical and market challenges. Read more »
A few years ago, solar-loving venture capitalists were excited to talk about solar cell and panel makers with novel manufacturing processes that could make them industry giants. Today, they want to talk about software, services and materials that don’t require hefty capital investments. Read more »
The thin film solar firm that’s raised close to a billion dollars is raising still more. Solyndra has closed $75 million in a credit facility from existing investors, and will use the funds for its manufacturing ramp up and to help reduce its manufacturing costs. Read more »
Solar companies have seen their stocks riding high so far this year. But that ride wont’ last forever. Here is a list of events and policies that could move the stocks in 2011. Read more »
Thin film solar firm Solyndra might have had its share of problems throughout 2010, but here’s a seriously cool application for its tube-shaped solar panels: greenhouses. Read more »
![MiaSole_0876[1]](http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/miasole_08761-e1285007255128.jpg?w=210&h=140&crop=1)
2011 will be a make or break year for many of the next-generation of thin film solar startups that are using the material copper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS) to make solar cells. Close to a dozen companies are aiming to either ramp up, or move into, production. Read more »
