Specimen 013 — Solyndra: The Solar Panel Built for a Shortage That Ended
Solyndra's module was not a flat panel but a rack of glass tubes: 40 per frame, each about an inch across, coated inside with a CIGS thin film and filled with silicone oil. The cylinders collected direct, diffuse and reflected light without tracking the sun, and the design needed none of the polysilicon that made its competitors expensive. Polysilicon peaked near $460 a kilogram in 2008; new capacity ended that shortage, and by Aug 31, 2011 the price was about $51.50 while flat modules had fallen from over $3.50 a watt to about $1.15. Solyndra was asking $3.24 a watt. Production stopped that day, about 1,100 employees were laid off, $527M of a $535M federal loan guarantee had been drawn, and the $733M Fremont plant was approved for sale at $90.2M in Nov 2012. 12345
References
- 1Solyndra - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
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- 3Missed warning signs: A Solyndra timeline - Center for Public Integrity
publicintegrity.org
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