The CBS news show “60 Minutes” sports a history of hatchet-jobs that goes back almost half a century. They’re phenomenally good at selecting a certain conclusion and then supporting it with misleading reporting, trick camera-work, and quotes taken out of context.
No company has done greater damage to the image of the American solar industry than Solyndra. It was therefore a source of great delight to me last week as I drove along Interstate 880 through Fremont, CA for what I didn’t see. The signs on the old factory were gone. Those persistent thorns in the side of American solar, had finally vanished, closing
Here’s the main reason I couldn’t get within a million miles of an elected position in the US: I wouldn’t vote for the political grandstanding represented by legislation like the “No More Solyndras” Act. I wouldn’t be a part of obscuring from the American people that energy sector loan guarantees from the federal government have resulted in a huge number
The US solar industry is undergoing some serious growing pains, with bankruptcies and mergers a necessary part of that process; meanwhile, competition from Chinese solar panels has many believing that American solar simply cannot compete. Not so.
Solar’s track record is certainly not inspiring: The
This month’s issue of Wired magazine includes a long feature, written by Washington Post national environmental reporter Juliet Eilperin, headlined “Why the Clean Tech Boom Went Bust.” (Disclosure: I’m a contributing editor at Wired, and Eilperin is an acquaintance.) The story, which joins a lengthening list of obits for the cleantech industries, has a certain
Amid all the negative publicity that Solyndra’s failure has brought to the Administration’s cleantech efforts, one cleantech program has received broad bipartisan support: DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-e). In 2012, ARPA-e will receive $275 million, a 53% increase from the prior year with both the House and the Senate supporting significant
We spend our days advocating for smart solar policy because we believe that harnessing the sun for more of our power is the better path forward. Turns out plenty of our fellow Americans feel the same way.
Polling released yesterday by SEIA and Schott shows that an impressive 9 out of 10 Americans think it’s
The cleantech industry as a whole, and the electric vehicle industry in particular, have been in the news nearly every day since Solyndra went bust, and not in a good way. The media and blogosphere are repeatedly asking the question, Which company will be the next recipient of money from the Department
The Solyndra debacle is no surprise to this cleantech venture capitalist. The inherent conflict between trying to get money out of the U.S. Treasury as quickly as possible to stimulate the economy and, at the same time, have government agencies that are ill-suited at making business decisions do just that was nothing other than a recipe for disaster.
For those of you who, like me, watch very little commercial news television, here’s a sample of reporting to consumers on the energy industry. This happens to concern Solyndra – a debacle that’s thrown a cold swimming pool of water on the already floundering US renewable energy industry.
For weeks now we’ve seen the Solyndra bankruptcy being used as a political punching bag. Now the overblown hype around one solar company is putting real industry growth and viable projects at risk. Enough is enough.
Last last week, SolarCity was informed that the DOE
Not so long ago the green energy movement celebrated because President Obama used words like ‘renewable energy’ and ‘climate change’ in his inaugural speech. It was a first for a US president.
Now comes the downside of being a political darling.
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