Big effing deal.

"Here's a sad and revealing chronology about a U.S. president named Obama, a California company named Solyndra and, now, a congressional investigation into the administration's loan guarantee of $535 million in a failed green energy project that was supposed to create jobs.

But it didn't.

At enormous taxpayer cost."

Read more:

How do you react to an article like this? Because you know - our hopey changey leader keeps proclaiming with glee that we are "investing" in America. The government always does well with "investing". Right?

It's frustrating. Anyone who has actually read anything about Solyndra would treat this as only the most speculative of investments.

I've been bitching about the company forever. Here in November. And here then in the last few paragraphs in June2010. Which I think is the more interesting article because the Valley was filled with open real estate when Solyndra just had to build a shiny new plant. They couldn't have converted any other space.

To be fair - it is an attractive building. I drive by it somewhat regularly. Yet it makes me mad every time.

There was absolutely zero financial information about this company that was good. Zero. Still President Money Bags flew in on his checkbook to save the day.

So - great. They are launching an investigation. BFD. We aren't getting our money back. We also aren't getting any of the money back they vomited on school solar panels that will take 30 years to pay off. But they had to pay for up front with bonds. Which will be infinitely less expensive in 10 years. Yet it was so important they had to get them all up with no bid contracts.

Updated: Oh yes. I'm spun up.

"What's more, Solyandra, a five-year-old company, has faced dire financial straights and had just recently undergone an audit, according to BNet.

As Solyndra's own CEO points out in an open letter response to the audit, Solyndra's future does depend on finding more financing, either through an IPO or privately. If it doesn't, the leading question about what happens to revolutionary companies that fail, at the top of this post, will get an answer. When big expectations lead to big disappointments, entire industries can be affected.

The White House blog, by contrast, proudly trumpets the fact that Solyndra's closure was averted by a $535 million dollar loan from the Department of Energy last year."

Read more:

How many Solyndras are there? I mean, you can imagine if one company got half a billion how that could be enormous financially.

Just put it all in a bonfire.

I'm going to be honest. I'm not in a great mood today. The country might be tired of this bullshit. Californians aren't. I don't feel a bit better after yesterday. And that guy Boner. The new house speaker. Just.. whatever.

I wasn't even going to post today. Then, this little gem pops up in my tweetdeck.

Solyndra to Close Factory, Layoff Dozens

Self I say. There must be another company named Solyndra. It can't be that one I've been bitching about forever in Fremont. The one that sucked up half a billion in taxpayer money. The one the President Money Bags came and tried to raise funds for. Not that one.

Oh yes. That one.

From the New York Times.

"This year just hasn’t panned out for Solyndra. The company is going to close its first factory, is delaying expanding its gleaming new factory and is laying off dozens of employees."

It just so pisses me off. I knew that money was going into a vast black hole dug by make workers. But somewhere in the recesses of your mind you think this thing has gone on so long - maybe it will work. Maybe they can bend the space time continuum. Maybe find a new form of physics which makes it cost effective to put more energy into making something than it takes to get out.

The article goes on to say:

"Instead, Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison — who joined the company only recently, replacing the founding CEO — told the Times that the company plans to let go about 40 employees and will not renew contracts for 150 temporary workers. (The company said Wednesday morning the number is actually 135.) The Fremont, Calif., company will shutter its first factory to save at least $60 million in capital spending. Instead of boosting its overall production capacity to 610 megawatts by 2013, it’s now looking at up to 300 megawatts by then: less than half the original plan."

The whole thing is really just effing unbelievable that the people in this state just wont bust on a brain cell to see how much money PMB is just waisting. Now with Brown in - we can expect more of the same.

There are tons of things I hated about Meg - but now I pretty much think no one can wrestle this state away from the unions. Not 150 million. Nothing.

Whatever.

The sun is already down.

Second update: Wow... I guess all these companies will go into "temporary inventory control" before they go belly up. No doubt hoping for more government money. I mean, how can you afford to keep plants idled? Oh.... right.

Updated:

It's hard to believe that Solyndra only went bankrupt a little over two months ago. Which makes it notable what has happened in to solar sector over that time. Solyndra was only a bad apple with bad management. Remember?

Photowatt files for bankruptcy. Here.

Sunpower announces a huge loss, restructuring, and layoffs. Here.

Beacon Power announces bankruptcy. Here.

Energy Conversion Devices to lay off 400. Here. Scratch that. Halts production. Here.

United Solar Ovonic announces a layoff. Here. Scratch that. Suspends all plant operations. Claims they will reopen next year. Here. One plant has only been open 5 months. Here.

Canadian Solar Solutions has a layoff. Here.

Stirling Energy files for bankruptcy. Here.

All these in the time it's been since Solyndra fell out.

Add Vestas Wind Systems. Here. Says sales for these companies will fall of a cliff if government help not extended. Here.

The domino's start falling.

Accusations of "another Solyndra" pull the plug on new vehicle chargers in small town.

"With a population of around 14,000, Mill Valley, CA is too big to be called a one-horse town. The real question is whether it will become a two-EV charging station town.

That question that was up for consideration at the September meeting of the Mill Valley town council. The city's planning engineer had sought and found grant money for installing Chargepoint charging stations as part of a 2010 deal between Marin Clean Energy and Coulomb Technologies to put charging stations in eight Marin County communities. A location for the charging stations had been located. Some of the funds for putting the stations in place came through that plan, while additional funds came from the Marin County transportation authority and other sources. Costs to the city would run around $1,000 a year (including electricity). Putting in the charging stations seemed to have support.

But a funny thing happened on a way to a vote. A local resident stood up to call electric cars something that was being forced on the community by the Federal government, "another Solyndra" that just "plain doesn't work." Within a few minutes, the city council decided that the costs and giving up two "precious parking spaces" was too much to ask."

First - notice the liberal area code. Mill Valley is right next to Marin.

Two - that is an amazingly small dollar amount for a city to kill a project. Especially in Marin County. I was just up there a week or two ago, and even now, it doesn't look like anything happened there. From an outsiders view, they seem relatively unscathed by the recession. Hell, even my renter is getting roofing work in Marin now.

Three - what does this do to Tesla?

Four - What does this do to Telsa?

Five - Repeat three and four.

In 2009 I started bitching about these things in Living off the companies teet. I am reusing the picture for this post.

With all that has been going on in the solar side - these plug in stations were completely off my radar. To see a resident in liberal Marin so easily shut down a project, means governments are running scared. Some might get the feeling a lot of these companies are toxic. Rightly so or not. With these plug in stations though - completely toxic.

Personally I couldn't figure out how that whole system was going to work. I think the electricity from them was almost completely subsidized.

The things conspiracies are made of.

I would like to start out by saying - I am not prone to conspiracy theories. I believe the simplest answer is probably the correct answer. Do not dismiss as a conspiracy what can be explained by incompetence, is what I try to live by.

Having said that - last night as I was watching Vestas Wind Systems report a four times larger than predicted loss, it dawned on me that all the big trading houses had invested so largely into green energy companies. They were also the same people who had the capability to "speculate" oil prices to infinity. They really got to win on both sides of the game. Oil futures went through the roof, and green energy really started to take off.

But the world got away from them, and now green energy companies are in a full blown panic. A death rattle panic. They didn't expect the recession to last so long. No one did. They didn't expect it to be so deep. No one did. And they never expected the pocketbook of the government might dry up. No one did.

As I was researching another just announced bankrupt solar company Suntricity (I wanted to see how much money they had thieved us of) I was truck by something their partner Timmothy Sutherland of Pace Global said in an interview last year. After the Solyndra bankruptcy and following screams of this isn't a problem in the industry - it was bad management. Of course, anyone who paid attention at all, knew it was the industry.

This was in an interview of Timothy Sutherland, CEO of Pace Global Energy - who was asked if we were in a solar bubble. Pace has also apparently been sold to Siemens this year. Which also makes it hard to find out which company was getting the subsidies. Anyway.

"Actually, at this point in the evolution of the solar industry, any attempt to gauge enterprise value based on competing energy prices is misguided; although I’m sure it’s done. This is due to yet another aspect of the “bubble” phenomenon. The solar market is largely a creation of national governments around the world. There are competitive dynamics internal to that market, as we’ve seen with the recent failures of Solyndra and Evergreen Solar in the face of overwhelming competition from Chinese manufacturers as formerly high-tech premium products become commoditized. The retail market for photovoltaics, however, is largely the creation of national governments; any estimate of future market share and profitability of a private manufacturer of solar panels is critically dependent on assumptions about subsidy levels and continuity."

This one paragraph basically says to me - these companies can not exist without government intervention. Now anti oil people will complain that oil companies get subsidies - but oil companies actually make a profit as well. The government doesn't support them a hundred percent like they do these green energy companies. So far none of these green energy companies have achieved that at all. As a matter of a fact, most are ratcheting down their operation by roughly 40%. If they aren't outright dying.

Fascinatingly, the only way we are finding out out how many cockroaches there are - is because of the massive amounts of fallout.

One has to wonder if - when the pain becomes so great, and enough of these companies fail - oil prices will actually come down. Our stockpiles keep increasing. And the only viable reason oil should be so high right now is because of fear of the Middle East. Some might blame inflation, but money just isn't moving around the system enough to be a big enough contributor.

It is a marathon of shit.

Robert Reich says:

1. The government isn't spending enough money.
2. If you get a job paying less than your old job, the government should pay you the difference.
3. The government should seize a public company.



One of the things that is so deeply frustrating about this recession is the constant feeling of being stuck. Unable to go forward. There are so many things I would love to do to help the economy - but I won't. These doofuses in government don't understand that most people operate under a fairness doctrine. It isn't fair I have to help all these other people out, when I was a responsible citizen.

I gave people jobs. I gave people a place to live. I paid my taxes.

I refuse to do anything that gives them the opportunity to penalise me more for being responsible. I'd rather even suffer, if it means eventually they will lay off people in government and the education sector. Especially the education sector!

I'll stop wanting teachers to be laid off - when teachers start being able to do math.

For instance - all the schools in California seem to be on this bandwagon. This one is the closest example in memory. But, they are all doing it. School in the East Bay who just approved solar panels. Knows it will take 25 years to realise cost savings. If lucky! Does it anyway.

Plan Approved to Install $25 Million in Solar Panels at Six Local Schools

"Given the upward trend of energy costs, the district said it's likely the panels would more than pay for themselves in about 20 years. Savings after 25 years could range from $5 million to $30 million, depending on energy costs."

Pisses me off. Hopefully in much less than 25 years, technology will have progressed enough to have made these panels obsolete. Still... they are just vacuuming money out of the economy.

Why should I have to work till I'm 65, while government workers can cash out at 50? And these people think I'm just going to keep making it so that can continue? I will eat nothing but ramen noodles before I buy into that. And I don't have to.

You see.. a fairness doctrine.

It pisses me off so deeply to see 1500 workers show up for 150 jobs and almost have a riot break out because - who expects that kind of turn out? While you can't lay off one government worker for one or two years. If you are lucky. I'm still waiting for NY to be legally allowed to fire people.

And no - I don't care how hard they work for the public. Everyone I know, has lost jobs. Taken pay cuts. Haven't gotten raises for a couple of years now. So eff them. Lay them off.

Not to mention a practically chewed a hole through my cheek when President Money bags went on the parade tour of Solyndra. Who has plowed through almost a billion dollars. Half a billion thanks to you and me, and their auditors don't even know if they will survive. Here. They came on my radar because at the height of the 2008 market crash, they were building a shiny new plant. Which confused me, because there was a ridiculous amount of real estate space to be had.

What if for example, technology makes a huge leap and this stuff costs a buck a watt, instead of the 3.24 a watt like Solyndra?

If we would have allowed market forces to dictate the adoption - instead of government plowing as much money as they can in an effort to look like a big shot - we'd have saved a lot of money.

You can tell this is all they are interested in, because country after country keeps saying they are going to be the first with a giant solar grid. It is just a race. A race to make you poor and them look good. Only, they aren't going to look good.

So you see.. government has to understand - I'm unwilling to work my ass off for them. Sadly, there are actually a lot of people who actually want to work.

They need to understand that until government stops acting like they are hanging out drunk at a stripper club making it rain with hundies - there is no reason to do anything but continue starving the beast.

There goes another one.

"Camarillo, Calif. -- In what seems to be a rough few weeks for the solar industry, SolarWorld announced plans to shut down its Camarillo, Calif. manufacturing plant and several aging German lines.

This news comes after several unsettling announcements, including German-based Solon closing its manufacturing operations in the U.S and Solyndra and Evergreen Solar declaring bankruptcy in August." Read more here.

When Solyndra closed up shop - there were all these Op'eds saying it wasn't indicative of the sector as a whole. These were isolated incidents. They just had bad management.

If by bad management, they meant unable to do math.

Here is a head scratcher.

SolarCity revives military homes solar project

"(Reuters) - Solar power developer SolarCity and Bank of America Merrill Lynch will go ahead with a plan to build more than $1 billion in new solar projects on military housing, despite their failure to win a U.S. loan guarantee."

"Under the new pact, Bank of America will finance the debt portion of the project, while SolarCity will create equity funds that qualify for a tax renewable energy tax break."

"What we've done here is create a financing model that can make distributed solar affordable on a huge scale without a guarantee from the federal government."

When I first read this story - I honestly couldn't believe it. If virtually your only source of money is from the government, it really isn't a financing model. The government is quite "fickle".

What could motivate a bank to lend this kind of money when there is nothing but bad news out of this sector. Don't believe me - I read this article just this morning!

Solar power bankruptcies loom as prices collapse

"Solyndra was just the beginning," said Jessie Pichel, head of clean energy research at the investment bank Jefferies & Co. "We're going to see a lot of companies go bankrupt."

Just how many? Of the few hundred or so solar panel makers worldwide, just 20 to 40 are expected to remain standing in a few years time, said Mark Bachman, a renewables analyst at Avian Securities."

And if you think they are joking - they are not! The green energy sector is collapsing faster than even I could have predicted. Just the headlines from this week alone.

REC to cut Norway output as solar market suffers

"Nov 29 (Reuters) - Norwegian solar firm Renewable Energy Corp plans to halt 60 percent of the capacity of its 650 megawatt multicrystalline wafer facility at Heroeya as global economic turbulence has cut demand and depressed prices, the firm said."

When anyone has to cut production by 60%, you know bad things are going to happen.

A123 Systems lays off 125 workers at Michigan battery plants

I didn't actually even know about this company. Apparently they supply batteries to Fisker Automotive. Who quite apparently is not doing well. Interestingly I saw the article was updated to reflect things wouldn't be so bad because they got a contract from GM. (chuckle) I think this is their second layoff this year.

AMSC cuts 20 percent of workforce

"AMSC continues to hit setbacks with today’s announcement that it has cut 20 percent of its staff in an attempt to move the Devens-based wind technology firm toward profitability. News of the layoffs come one month after the company abandoned plans made in March to buy Finnish company The Switch Engineering Oy for $265 million after it was unable to raise enough money."

Then really - the best headline of them all. Evergreen Solar only managed to get 11 million dollars in their bankruptcy sale. The company only walked away with a 50 million loss. They listed assets of $424.5 million and had debts of $485.6 million. Here.

You and I taxpayer will never know how much we lost in tax dollar subsidies for this company. I read this morning the gment has scrubbed the "grant" records. If you are diligent enough you can look at old articles that list grants in piecemeal.

So again I ask. Why would BofA still be shoveling out money in a declining solar market. I mean, the whole declining housing market worked out so well for them.

It is really a sad day in America when you actually have to start rooting for the short sellers to make the market more honest. And I hate those fucks. I know they serve a purpose. I also know that when they latch on to your company, a small stumble could lead to almost certain death. They pack on.

Right now however, the government and the banks are above the law. The only people with the power are the short sellers. Unfortunatly.

The solar ponzi scheme dominos are finally starting to fall.

"Solar company Sunrun says to end all operations in Nevada."

I read this headline and laughed and laughed and laughed. And then I laughed some more. You see I have always thought solar was a scam. You are essentially paying for your electricity in advance. And at the time everyone but everyone would tell you that energy prices never went down. We will see how this falls out. I don't think anyone knows where energy prices will settle a year from now. Maybe somewhere good. Maybe somewhere bad.

At any rate - last year Nevada decided they were going to start charging a tariff to all customers for upkeep of the grid. This included solar users. Which obviously undermines the whole industry. And now? Two - count them two solar companies have fled the State. Solar city and Sunrun. You didn't think the government was going to let people control their energy lives now did you? And I don't even feel bad for these people. They sold their soul to the devil for an energy subsidy. Oh I don't want to go on a rant, but all of you are going to be paying for this for years to come. The amount the government (YOU) has paid is unknown because it's been hidden the whole time. Hope you like being the governments prison bitch. Solyndra was heaven compared to this.

I'm quite fascinated with the way this will turn out since a lot of people are "renting" panels but are still obligated by contract to pay. Yet those companies don't exist in their State anymore.

Also not included I this is a whole bunch of subsidies that expired in 2016.Which I'm sure has nothing to do with this. Said in the most sarcastic way.

The Presidents love child has died.

Fremont solar tech firm Solyndra to shut down, lay off hundreds of workers.

When I read this I audibly said "holy shit". I didn't think they would cave this early. You can read my previous posts here.

The ultimate douche mobile.

I saw my first Chevy Volt in the wild today. And, it just really made me burn.

We have an Obama 2012 sticker, a 99% sticker, and a "Thanks Barry" license plate. The only thing missing is a Solyndra parking lot pass.

I have very little to give.

Honestly, I wasn't going to give you anything this weekend. I'd contemplated taking a week off from blogging. Insomnia is beating me. And by the time I get this way - I've been sleep deprived for quite a while. Above my normal deprivation. I've been living with it for probably 10 years.

Still, I hesitate to ever tell people I'm taking a break. Something interesting/funny/or other - aways happens. This isn't the case right now, but those Solyndra hearings are next week. You know I'll have something to say about it.

Anyway. Despite sleeping in till noon yesterday. We still managed to buy a tree. Dig a hole. Where Mr S. hit a sprinkler line. The lines are just so brittle after age, that even if you are trying hard not to hit one - it's easy to do so, and it will just shatter. Which is one reason I hate these greenies so much. I can't get plastic anywhere not to break down. Even sitting under the earth.

Double anyway. The extra joy in this project was he hit a line at a four way. Do you know how hard it is to get a junction onto line that goes in four different directions? Effing hard. You have to buy this hackshit pipe patch extender. Whatever. I'm over it. The tree is in. The land is flat.

The tree however could be allergic to wind. But I don't even care. It's a purple robe lucust.

That bubble just popped.

Rumor is, Solyndra locked out it's employees. When I got there, parking lots still had cars, but they were all leaving. Today was the last day for the 1,100 employees.

The most punishing thing about this (aside from all the taxpayer dollars) is when they created these buildings - the area all around them was flush with open real estate. Instead of taking over one of those buildings - they built from scratch. Now we have that extra inventory added.

Not political favoritism. Just idiots.

As some of you know - Steven Chu is not one of my favorite people. If anyone deserves to be thrown under the bus - it is this guy. As I've outlined here, he was on the board of directors of a semiconductor company. A sector of the economy that operates on razor thin margins and has to spin on a dime to compete with changing market forces.

Having said that - I don't believe political influence had much, if anything, to do with Solyndra. And I will tell you why.

Everyone in Silicon Valley bet on Solar. Everyone. It is a viable technology. Expensive as it may be. Just wildly overpriced for the benefit it provides.

Even I had become complacent of the relationship between government and tech companies. Many companies probably would not exist if it weren't for the government buying goods or services. Like Irobot for example. However, somewhere we went from buying goods and services - to just trying to create a whole industry. Shoving money out the door hand over fist to everyone imaginable.

Political influence is awesome. It's also really awesome to send money back to your homeys in the form of extra business. Steven Chu is just not savvy enough to be a political insider. If you look at his background, you can see that he is bathed in the misguided, pervasive, Berkeley douchebaggery/ideology of Eco-Capitalism. Well before he even met President Money Bags.

He just got lucky and fell into a match made in heaven with PMB. And it all would have worked - if it weren't for the recession. They could have hidden the ramifications of market forces that didn't agree with their delusions of grandeur.

Sadly, the only way we get to see how much money was being shoved out, is by the wreckage of the industry collapsing. You aren't going to track every company that has a stake in solar. But when they start failing or taking losses - that is really easy to track.

Take for example Applied Materials stunner of a presser today.

Applied Materials suffering from steep decline in orders and revenue from solar sector

"After a record revenue financial year, Applied Materials is experiencing a significant reduction in equipment orders and revenue from PV manufacturing customers. Though cancellations were minimal, backlog decreased by 26% to US$2.4 billion, of which 14% is within its EES division, which includes PV equipment. Management expects PV related global CapEx to at fall by at least 50% in 2012 as manufacturers combat massive overcapacity and focus on cell efficiency improvements and technology buys"


Analyst: bills rising due to overpriced renewables

"SAN FRANCISCO—Dozens of renewable energy plants being built to meet California's tough global warming laws, including a major Spanish-owned solar plant in the Mojave Desert, are so overpriced they will increase consumers' energy bills for decades, according to the independent watchdog arm of the state's utility regulator. "

The article goes on to say:

"Earlier this year, the watchdog unit estimated that 59 percent of the renewable energy contracts that the commission approved in recent years were above market value, according to the commission's own pricing benchmark for when the contracts were signed. The contracts involved a variety of utilities and developers."

This is what happens when the government circumvents market feedback. And anyone that even bothered to look would have seen this. But they just didn't want to because of their ideology.

Did you know a lot of these large companies that have solar installations on the top of their roofs can't even sell power back to the grid? I was taking to someone I've known for a long time who is a buyer at Costco in my city. They have 10% overcapacity at night. They can't sell any of it back to the grid.

Rather than adopt a conspiracy theory, I am guessing there is actually a logical explanation. Probably load capabilities. But still! Every single school I hear talk about these solar installations boasts about selling power back to the grid. Yet, it sounds like most large companies are not able to.

It makes no difference because as you can see, day after day, more and more companies show the strain of the government not shoveling boatloads of cash at them.

LDK Solar trims earnings outlook as prices fall.

Jinkosolar cuts year revenue and shipment estimate.

Day4 Energy’s CEO quits, 28 laid off.

A snake eating it's own tail.

Saw this news story this morning and was going to write about it. Thankfully this guy already blogged about it.

BREAKING: CalPERS To Become California Governments' Lender of Last Resort

"If you thought Solyndra was a bad government investment, you aren't going to like this report from the Sacramento Bee one bit. Apparently, CalPERS has decided to become the lender of last resort for local governments in California, taking steps today to create an $800 million fund for investment in public works projects."

Blame Chinada.

"Factories in China have been churning out solar panels so fast that prices have plunged. Just ask the folks at Solyndra, the bankrupt photovoltaic-cell maker that has gotten the Obama Administration into hot water over loan guarantees. Those Chinese manufacturers are now disrupting another corner of the solar industry: so-called solar thermal installations, which make electricity by bouncing sunlight off mirrors to boil water, creating steam that drives turbines.

At least four companies have abandoned plans for solar thermal plants in the U.S. in favor of electricity-producing solar cells, which have fallen in price by nearly half this year, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance." Read More here.

Yes.... China is the problem. Or it could be that these types of installations have proven to be insanely costly.

"Solar thermal startup BrightSource recently finished building a solar-to-steam farm for oil giant Chevron, which will enable Chevron to use steam from the solar farm for enhanced oil recovery. But according to BrightSource’s latest amendments to its S-1 (the filing that indicates it will go public), that project, called Coalinga, ended up costing significantly more than BrightSource expected.

BrightSource says that when the project was first established back in December 2008, the company thought it would take a loss on the project, because it was the company’s first and was intended to be a proving ground. BrightSource says it had estimated contract losses of $10.5 million at that time. However, as of this summer, June 30, 2011, BrightSource says its loss since inception of the project was $58.6 million, “or $48.1 million greater than the initial loss estimate as recognized in December 2008." Read more here.

The article goes on to say:

"These cost overruns are worrisome, because Coalinga was a smaller 29 MW project for Chevron, and BrightSource is currently knee-deep in building a far larger 392 MW farm in the desert near Las Vegas. BrightSource and the owners of Ivanpah say they have committed to funding up to “$66.5 million of overrun contingency reserves, known as the funded overrun equity,” for Ivanpah"

So.....Chevron *a public company* got a five fold increase in costs on this type of installation. The Ivanpah installation is the one that just got a 1.6 billion dollar loan from the government. I can only imagine what we the taxpayer will experience in cost over runs. I mean, they have the government checkbook. But this is all China's fault.

What would make you axe a purchase faster? Paying 5 times what you expected for something, or getting something much cheaper than you expected?