Back in late 2009 I attended the ground breaking ceremony for Solyndra’s solar panel factory, which was partly funded by a $535 million loan guarantee. The event featured a live video speech from Vice President Joe Biden, and was attended by Secretary of Energy Steven Chu and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. This week, almost 20 months later, I visited the factory, which is now set to produce 200 MW of its tube-shaped solar panels annually, and the company hopes to boost that to 300 MW worth of solar panels produced annually by 2013.
It’s taken around a billion dollars in private equity and a coveted loan guarantee to get to this point. Solyndra’s Director of Corporate Communications, David Miller, who gave me a tour of the factory, told me that Solyndra will be closing on one more financing round in the near future, which should help the company reach a cash flow positive state in the fourth quarter of this year. We hit $140 million in revenues in 2010, and that will grow substantially this year, Miller said.
Miller showed me all the machines that together produce Solyndra’s unusual tubular solar systems. Those include machines that spray Solyndra’s solar materials — copper, indium, gallium and selenium (CIGS) — onto uniform layers on tubes, machines that place the materials into glass tubes, machines that insert gas-filled bags into the tubes, machines that spray inert gas into the tubes, and machines that assemble the tubes into the racking system. It’s a complex process, that has been a costly effort, but Solyndra says as it scales up manufacturing its costs are dropping.
Here are my photos from the tour:
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1 / 23Solyndra's Factory in Fremont, CalifSolyndra's Factory in Fremont, Calif -
2 / 23Solyndra's Installation on Its Factory RoofSolyndra's Installation on Its Factory Roof -
3 / 23Solyndra's Installation on Its Factory RooftopSolyndra's Installation on Its Factory Rooftop -
4 / 23The wiring for Solyndra's rooftop installationThe wiring for Solyndra's rooftop installation -
5 / 23The Various Layers of Solyndra's Solar TubeThe Various Layers of Solyndra's Solar Tube -
6 / 23The track that the tubes roll on to get producedThe track that the tubes roll on to get produced -
7 / 23The Glass Tube and the Solar MaterialThe Glass Tube and the Solar Material -
8 / 23Solyndra's Ground Rack, Needs No ScrewSolyndra's Ground Rack, Needs No Screw -
9 / 23Solyndra's 300K Square Foot FactorySolyndra's 300K Square Foot Factory -
10 / 23Stacked Solar Panels in Solyndra's FactoryStacked Solar Panels in Solyndra's Factory -
11 / 23Solar Material Getting Deposited On TubesSolar Material Getting Deposited On Tubes -
12 / 23Solyndra Solar Panel Getting Tested With LightSolyndra Solar Panel Getting Tested With Light -
13 / 23Solyndra Solar Panel Getting Tested With LightSolyndra Solar Panel Getting Tested With Light -
14 / 23Solyndra Panels Getting InspectedSolyndra Panels Getting Inspected -
15 / 23Robot Arm Moving Solar PanelRobot Arm Moving Solar Panel -
16 / 23Overseeing OperationsOverseeing Operations -
17 / 23Tubes Moving Through DepositionTubes Moving Through Deposition -
18 / 23Cooling Systems to Cool Deposition MachinesCooling Systems to Cool Deposition Machines -
19 / 23Inserting inert gas in the tubesInserting inert gas in the tubes -
20 / 23The Frame Ready For TubesThe Frame Ready For Tubes -
21 / 23Inspecting the solar panelsInspecting the solar panels -
22 / 23Solyndra Panels Boxed Up -
23 / 23Solyndra Solar Panels Ready To ShipSolyndra Solar Panels Ready To Ship


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