Solyndra as a victim of entrepreneurial history
LP note: This is what I teach my students — the business of technological advances is not all ups. It's a progression of ups and downs. Usually the end result is up, but there are the inevitable failures along the way. Look at the history just in this century: Cars, aeronautics, radio, TV, computers, internet. The evidence is clear.
In the case of Solyndra, it was external inputs that caused the company's rise and demise. Sure, U.S. taxpayers lost money. But this amount is clearly minuscule compared to the amounts lost due to the 2008 financial meltdown and the Iraq War.
And who knows? Solyndra's technology may ultimately win out in the end ... once the Chinese see it as superior and adopt it.
Why the Clean Tech Boom Went Bust
By Juliet Eilperin January 20, 2012 | 3:21 pm | Wired February 2012
In 2005, Congress created a federal loan guarantee program as part of the Energy Policy Act, which initially was authorized at $4 billion. Though ostensibly set up to promote nonpolluting energy sources, it was, like most federal slush funds, created by a politician (in this case, former Republican New Mexico senator Pete Domenici) to help a specific industry (in this case, nuclear energy). But the expected nuclear renaissance never happened; the private market was unwilling to finance plants that cost billions to build, created toxic waste, and ran into all the NIMBY hurdles that come with nuclear energy. So the door was open for applications from other clean-energy sectors.
While solar projects would ultimately receive more than three-quarters of the program’s financial support, the list of recipients included everything from a wind farm in Oregon to a cellulosic ethanol plant in Kansas. But by the time Bush left office, not a penny had been distributed. Most of the applications, including one from Solyndra, were still wending their way through the approval rounds at the Department of Energy. There were only 16 employees tasked with sorting through the applications and relevant data, and the loan program was more of a theoretical construct than an engine of economic activity.
Then Obama took office, and the loan program suddenly had an administration committed to using federal dollars to stimulate what it referred to repeatedly as “the clean-energy economy.” For Democrats, the concept of clean energy hit every button there was to push: It addressed the looming problem of climate change, offered a domestic source of electricity and fuel, and promised new jobs in a shaky economy.
The Department of Energy, which for decades had focused on managing nuclear waste and weapons and doling out subsidies to the fossil fuel industry, had a new leader—Steven Chu, a renowned physicist and Nobel laureate—and a fresh mandate.
(More here.)
In the case of Solyndra, it was external inputs that caused the company's rise and demise. Sure, U.S. taxpayers lost money. But this amount is clearly minuscule compared to the amounts lost due to the 2008 financial meltdown and the Iraq War.
And who knows? Solyndra's technology may ultimately win out in the end ... once the Chinese see it as superior and adopt it.
Why the Clean Tech Boom Went Bust
By Juliet Eilperin January 20, 2012 | 3:21 pm | Wired February 2012
In 2005, Congress created a federal loan guarantee program as part of the Energy Policy Act, which initially was authorized at $4 billion. Though ostensibly set up to promote nonpolluting energy sources, it was, like most federal slush funds, created by a politician (in this case, former Republican New Mexico senator Pete Domenici) to help a specific industry (in this case, nuclear energy). But the expected nuclear renaissance never happened; the private market was unwilling to finance plants that cost billions to build, created toxic waste, and ran into all the NIMBY hurdles that come with nuclear energy. So the door was open for applications from other clean-energy sectors.
While solar projects would ultimately receive more than three-quarters of the program’s financial support, the list of recipients included everything from a wind farm in Oregon to a cellulosic ethanol plant in Kansas. But by the time Bush left office, not a penny had been distributed. Most of the applications, including one from Solyndra, were still wending their way through the approval rounds at the Department of Energy. There were only 16 employees tasked with sorting through the applications and relevant data, and the loan program was more of a theoretical construct than an engine of economic activity.
Then Obama took office, and the loan program suddenly had an administration committed to using federal dollars to stimulate what it referred to repeatedly as “the clean-energy economy.” For Democrats, the concept of clean energy hit every button there was to push: It addressed the looming problem of climate change, offered a domestic source of electricity and fuel, and promised new jobs in a shaky economy.
The Department of Energy, which for decades had focused on managing nuclear waste and weapons and doling out subsidies to the fossil fuel industry, had a new leader—Steven Chu, a renowned physicist and Nobel laureate—and a fresh mandate.
(More here.)
Labels: clean energy, solar power
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