Poetic justice: Solyndra’s glass tubes now part of a modern art exhibit
posted at 6:41 pm on August 20, 2012 by Erika Johnsen
The erstwhile solar company Solyndra, you’ll remember, received a more than $500 million loan guarantee from Obama’s Department of Energy clean energy program and was touted as a poster child of the burgeoning clean energy movement, only to fail miserably at taxpayers’ expense last year. Via Joel Gehrke, PJ Media has the scoop on the rather spectacularly fitting final resting place of some of the auctioned-off or abandoned solar-panel-making inventory from the now-bankrupt Solyndra factory. Oh yes, friends — manufactured parts once meant to power the ostensible clean energy economy of the future, courtesy of the federal government’s “investment,” are now a part of a modern art exhibit at U.C. Berkeley. It would almost be hilarious, if the Obama administration weren’t still fighting tooth-and-nail to maintain their authority to continue hand-picking winners and losers in the energy market.
The tubes were recovered from Solyndra. The solar panels developed by the company were claimed to be unlike any other product ever tried in the industry. The panels were made of racks of cylindrical tubes (also called tubular solar panels), as opposed to traditional flat panels. Although the company was once touted for its unusual technology, plummeting silicon prices led to the company being unable to compete with more conventional solar panels. On September 1, 2011, the company ceased all business activity, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and laid off all employees leaving behind 24 million glass tubes in San Jose, California destined to be destroyed.
It’s almost too perfect that, instead of being left for dead and lost to the ravages of time, the government’s incompetence as a venture capitalist is being immortalized in a pretty-and-whimsical-but-functionally-useless exhibit. It just says so little, while at the same time saying so much, you know?
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Obama is trying to get some green company to design windmills that work on a reverse pattern of currents to enable the massive sucking going on- thanks to his incompetent policies- to be tapped tas a near-endless source of energy.
profitsbeard on April 8, 2013 at 8:45 PM
Obamas’ mini-me Cadillac Deval Patrick can’t wait to get his big green scam going. It’s called Cape Wind, and dumb and dumber are about to pour $2 billion large taxpayer dollars to ensure that it gets built.
shanimal on April 8, 2013 at 8:53 PM
I’ll say it again: this is an effort to relinquish energy production from oil and gas – not because it’s dirty, costly or rare, but because the progressives don’t own it.
Wind is the least efficient of all the “green” energies simply because windmills cost more to operate than they generate in revenue. They’re more often than not inoperable – not just because it’s not windy all the time – but because the massive blades necessary to generate any kind of usable energy are hell on bearings. The equipment wears out. And it’s expensive to fix. The maintenance staff for a wind farm typically rivals that of the cleanup crew after a democratic function; only the wind farm needs it for 3 shifts instead of 2.
BKeyser on April 8, 2013 at 8:56 PM
The entirety of the wind power industry was a wealth transfer scheme from the productive to democrat donors, cronies, and family members. The who thing was sold as a solution to a hoax.
tom daschle concerned on April 8, 2013 at 9:03 PM
Word has it here in NC that a well-known computer company — named after a fruit — has declared itself as “green” since they make enough electricity from their solar cells. The trouble is, they use NONE of it. Rather, they sell that to the local power company since the subsidized rate is so high. And then they use the local, low-cost stuff made by the local nuke plant.
geek49203 on April 8, 2013 at 9:39 PM
Then again, what if the studies done by actual experts (engineers, not “advocates”) show that wind power cannot ever break even on its own, much less make a profit?
Factoring in maintenance, life-cycle costs, environmental damage (being a giant bird Cuisinart), and the fact that like it or not, the wind doesn’t always blow, you could make a good case that wind power is a dead-end development on purely practical grounds.
Handing a report like that to hardcore believers (like Obama), opportunists (like the “wind power entrepreneurs”), and those who simply want an excuse to ban oil, gas, nuclear and etc. (the EPA, both DOEs- Energy and Education, etc.), I suspect there’s a good chance said report would swiftly be buried deeper than Jimmy Hoffa. Followed by everyone on the “green energy” side demanding more subsidies, all in the name of “saving Holy Mother Gaia”. And lining their pockets at taxpayers’ expense.
In short, exactly what we are seeing right now.
clear ether
eon
eon on April 8, 2013 at 10:02 PM
Interesting timing; Drudge is reporting a brand new solar failure. Flabeg Solar received $10.2 million in Federal funds and an additional $9 million from the state of Pennsylvania.
The list just keeps on growing; but given the “reliability and economical utility” of these “green” investments what else would you expect?
mad scientist on April 8, 2013 at 10:08 PM
…c r o o k s ….
KOOLAID2 on April 8, 2013 at 10:17 PM
Fleabag Solar?
de rigueur on April 8, 2013 at 10:45 PM
Wait — Isn’t wind power like free or something?
Dasher on April 9, 2013 at 9:03 AM
It won’t end until the next big scam arrives. They’ll keep it simple and emotional. That’s why 3 card monty and the shell game worked so well.
There was a home show in town last weekend and was being broadcast remotely on radio. The announcer was interviewing a guy who was selling solar power equipment for the home. He was asked how much did it cost and he said that the power from the sun was free, then added that the equipment wasn’t. Of course, most people stopped listening when he said ‘free’.
Kissmygrits on April 9, 2013 at 9:19 AM
Ladies and gentlemen this is called looting the treasury.
jukin3 on April 9, 2013 at 10:53 AM