Intel's solar spinoff files for bankruptcy

8/23/2011 4:46 PM EDT

First Nevergreen, now SpectraWatt. This must be that greenconomy Obama keeps touting.

8/23/2011 7:44 PM EDT

Just goes to show you that even Intel can make bad investments and even in the green economy you need good products, good people and a good market strategy...

8/23/2011 10:43 PM EDT

Yes, this shows that companies as Intel can make bad investment; again on the other hand it was a good decision to come out of it when they realized they made a bad investment.
What might be the reasons behind the solar companies filing bankruptcy one after the other? Reduced subsidies from Govt., due to the recent crisis?

8/24/2011 1:07 AM EDT

If a company relies on Govt. subsidies to elude bankruptcy, they had a faulty business plan from their inception.

8/24/2011 1:52 AM EDT

With the possible exception of FSLR, there are very few solar companies that can survive without government subsidies. The whole business model is messed up ---- recurrent source of revenue is not great, not a whole lot to service. Then there is the tiny issue that there are dozens upon dozens of solar companies chasing the same non-existent market. This is just the beginning, many more bankruptcies are on the way.

8/24/2011 5:24 AM EDT

Solar cells the price per watt is not stable because of raw material cost is unstable by a value changing between 100 to 1000%. Mean while few manufactures use certain type of materials to reduce the price to below 1$ per watt. Lot of competition and so to keep upto date the solar companies need to watch for all aspects and move.

8/24/2011 12:46 PM EDT

The economic model may be distorted due to government subsidiary. What if the company prices the solar cell just over the actual cost minus the subsidy. Although the model can't sustain, it could drive off competition in early stage. Nonetheless, there may be more reasons behind that US based solar cell manufacturers are filing bankruptcy one after another. Leading in next energy technology is crucial to the future of mankind. The future energy is ideally economic sound. If solar cell isn't, what is?

8/24/2011 1:15 PM EDT

Ultimately, solar companies will realize they are in the power business. They are only selling "green" to a government created niche. They must become grid competitive or they will serve these niche markets forever.

8/24/2011 1:35 PM EDT

My understanding is that in most places solar is not at grid parity yet. So without subsidies it cannot compete. Some people would argue however, that the "real" cost of carbon based power generation is higher than just the utility bill and these "hidden" costs are an unfair subsidy for oil, coal, and natural gas based power.

8/24/2011 3:44 PM EDT

The companies that are failing are trying to manufacture in the US.

8/24/2011 6:21 PM EDT

We don't have a problem with manufacturing costs what we have a problem with is capital. Cost of capital in foreign countries is effectively zero for firms in China.

8/24/2011 10:33 PM EDT

I think that the bankruptcies are being driven by a sudden drop in the prices of panels due to overcapacity. Germany just dropped their subsidies, killing a major market in Europe, and California is phasing theirs out. Add to that an aggressive push from China and there is bound to be a shakeout.

Larry M.

8/26/2011 6:13 PM EDT

"This is an example of a "Faux Economy""

I'd be interested to know how expensive oil would get without the massive subsidies and tax breaks....

(and wars--but that's a whole other topic).

8/27/2011 11:35 AM EDT

I can see many other things at work here besides politicians although they are getting most of the blame, in most countries. Most of the current crop of elected leaders inherited an economic mess post or during the GFC. Looking at our PV cells, the country with the largest annual investment in renewable energy per capita terms is China. It is also the largest annual producer of photovoltaic cells; both in number of cells and capacity, with quantities increasing every year for the last several years. That same country also continues to hold its currency at exchange rates that are artificially lower than a "float" would put them. One result is that the price paid on the export market per unit of goods produced in China, irrespective of quality and irrespective of the costs of inputs into production will be pulled lower compared with goods of the same spec. produced in any other economy. If we take the "China Exchange" out of the equation what else is wrong with PV production as a business? Well, unlike Facebook, iPad, Twitter etc (all worthy products and services in their market) the role of PV cells in the economy and in life is poorly understood by average persons. They lie flat on a roof (not like a wind turbine farm) and if anyone notices them, they think its hot water heating. In fact, I would argue that the need for an efficient, reliable electricity supply grid is not understood clearly by many politicians, let alone by the people who vote. In many households, an understanding of electricity supply starts and ends at the wall outlet or perhaps goes as far as the meter box and the regular bill. Most people do not know that solar storms & sunspots can interfere with grid operation. These two issues work very strongly against a PV production industry in most countries except China. It is a nation well aware of how far it has to come; it can already make PV cells at lower input cost than anywhere else can in the world.

8/29/2011 7:21 PM EDT

I'd speculated in an earlier posting that solar cell start-ups are at risk of being passed by new companies that find a cheaper / more efficient technology. While that is always the case in technology, solar cell technology seems to be especially volatile at this time. How did the Intel spin-off technology compare with the latest developments?

8/31/2011 10:10 AM EDT

European programmes are not "government subsidy" in the sense of using general taxation to pay people to fit solar panels, but instead a "feed-in tariff" which pays people to generate low-emissions electricity. In the UK we are paid around £0.43 per kilowatt hour to generate electricity using our own solar panels. The payment comes from a levy on high-emissions electricity which is paid by all electricity consumers. As Germany and Spain have succeeded in fitting a lot of solar panels they have cut back on the incentives to fit more, but the UK programme only started in April 2010.

The driving factors are: dwindling conventional fossil fuel supplies (the UK is now a net importer of oil and gas, where it was an exporter 10 years or less ago), worries about fossil fuel prices, and commitments on greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate science is imprecise as is any field that has to take into account the majority of the world's systems, however it is very clear that:
1) greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide trap heat in the atmosphere (otherwise the surface temperature would be around -20 centigrade, I believe)
2) increased concentrations increase the amount of heat trapped
3) more heat in the atmosphere means more weather in the sense that there will be more violent winds, more evaporation in hotter places, more precipitation etc.

The precise outcomes of this are as hard to state as the weather next week, but it is fairly clear that some places will become deserts, others suffer from reduced crop yields, others have severe flooding and storm damage.

How many hurricanes will be needed in New York before people start to think something is up?

8/31/2011 4:34 PM EDT

A lot of steam here missing the larger point.

Low prices are not a bad thing at all for the industries and people that consider PV as an alternative. In fact, getting prices lower is the goal of the Feed In Tariffs and many of the government actions and programs. Yes, the real activity and muscle is coming from China without a doubt. Yes, there are distortions of subsidies and currency. But this fierce competition is driving down cost and advancing the whole industry along the learning curve.

Today Solyndra bites the dust. But it is not cause to celebrate Coal, Nukes, or Dick Cheney.
Lower prices mean it becomes more practical for more people.