Inside the solar industry, many are not convinced that Solyndra faltered because of overseas competition. The company used a novel technology that did not require silicon and took a big competitive hit when the price of silicon tumbled…

Even some former Solyndra employees were skeptical that competition from China caused their company’s downfall. Danny Nguyen, who worked as a mechanic at Solyndra for five years, said he was waiting for the outcome of the F.B.I. investigation “to find the real cause” of his employer’s collapse.

Still, the pressures of foreign competition are evident on rooftops across the Bay Area. On Wednesday, Lisa Jackson, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, took a tour of the headquarters of Project Open Hand, a San Francisco charity, where a local solar company, Luminalt, installed 52 panels made by the Chinese company Suntech.