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Government investment disaster in the works??
UPDATE:
Solyndra has gone BK!! I got this one right....
Link to bloomberg story:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-31/solyndra-to-file-for-bankruptcy...
Read on. This is a very important story!
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Solar stocks have been a terrible investment over the past few years. Some of the big public names have been hammered.
FSLR = -65%
LDK = -88%
ESLR = -100%
SPWR = -88%
Bloomberg had a story today on this. The bottom line:
The solar-equipment industry is beginning a consolidation that’s already the biggest in at least two years as plunging prices for photovoltaic systems force weaker companies to team with competitors or close shop.
From personal involvement I can add a bit of “color” to the story. Both China Inc. and Euro Inc. solar panel manufactures are willing to provide 100% of the financing (including “soft” costs) for a viable project. What better evidence could you find that there is a very big imbalance of supply and demand?
The fundamental issue is that solar panels are a low tech. commodity product. It’s very difficult to make a buck when that is the case.
These points all lead me to wonder about a big company in this space, Solyndra. This is a private company. I don’t have any financials to look at as a result. Neither do you. But you should, this company is heavily indebted to Uncle Sam.
There was a big announcement at Solyndra the other day. I think that this is a sign of some problems. This from August 19th:
Mr. Gronet was the CEO and Chairman of Solyndra. He was also the founder. He is Ex AMD. When he left in 2005 he had money in his pocket. That (and some VC money) was the capital that got Solyndra going.
It sure strikes me odd that he would be leaving right now. There has been no replacement named. That strikes me odd too.
As I said, there are no current numbers to look at. Solyndra tried to go public back in June 2010. There was a “Red Herring” stock prospectus that was circulated. There was no interest in the deal so it got pulled ("Unfavorable market conditions" was the excuse given) The SEC registration statement (S-1) for the proposed deal was also pulled from the public.
What was in the prospectus was, no doubt, the real reason that investor chose to take a ‘pass’ on the deal. There were revenue/expense numbers for the nine months preceding the proposed deal:
Revenue: $58.8mm
Cost of Goods Sold: $108.0mm
That is an absolute complete disaster. This is a low margin business to begin with. At Solyndra they were losing 84 cents for every dollar of sales. Adding in SG&A and CapEx the losses and cash drain had to be very heavy.
Of course, that’s just me guessing. I repeat, there are no numbers on this company. And that is the crux of the problem. There should be numbers available to the public. After all, the company has been financed by the Department of Energy for years. To make it worse, the funding has come from the Treasury Department’s own private bank. The Federal Financing Bank. Solyndra’s out-standings with the FFB/DOE as of July totaled $530 million. The rates for these advances are clearly subsidized. Consider the interest rate on this $2.5mm loan.
The pattern of subsidized financing is also clear from the FFB reports from January through June 2011.
You would think that with all this money and all these question marks someone in D.C. would be looking into all of this. There actually has been an effort to uncover some facts. But it went no place at all.
On June 27th the House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing. On top of the agenda was Solyndra. Jeffrey Zients (Office of Management and Budget Deputy Director) failed to show for the hearing to discuss OMB's role in the Solyndra DOE Loan Guarantee process. He sent a letter saying he had a scheduling conflict. A scheduling conflict? Give me a break!
Of note were the comments by the Chair of the committee, Cliff Stevens (R-Fla) who said that if the OMB refuses to comply in the coming weeks he would issue a subpoena to force disclosure. While I’m not holding my breath for this to happen, a showdown on Solyndra is coming. Keep in mind that the Boss/Owner (Pictured with O) just took a powder a few days ago.
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Side Notes:
From ABC news:
The loan guarantee, the administration's first for a clean energy project, benefited a company whose prime financial backers include Oklahoma oil billionaire George Kaiser, a "bundler" of campaign donations. Kaiser raised at least $50,000 for the president's 2008 election effort.
In one of those “twist of fates” you hear about; back in April of 2008 Senator Hillary Clinton exposed the Kaiser/Obama connection while she was battling the big O in the Arizona primary. Obama was running an ad that said:
“I don’t take money from oil companies or Washington lobbyists”
The Clinton campaign made a big deal of this and pointed squarely at George Kaiser and the fact that he was raising big bucks for O’s campaign.
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- advertisements -
Tomato plants convert sunlight directly into food, can't get much more efficient than that!
Solar arrays can only achieve their full potential in space; therefore, the surface of a planet is NOT the correct place for an expanding technological civilization!
Solar has never been cheaper per watt than it is right now. Solar is THE right alt energy for some people and some applications. One size fits all doesn't work in a world where everybody is a different size, walk a mile in my one size fits all shoes and then we'll talk.
Ethanol is the right alt energy for some people/apps - its the source of the ethanol that needs to be chosen correctly - corn is better as food than as fuel. Sugar seems to work great in Brazil.
Solar is so cheap, people can't make a profit on it - that is a problem of economics, not of physics or material sciences.
insanely cheap NON govt subsidized computer or smartphone
Indirect subsidy - government is far and away the largest purchaser of computer software. Check out the 2012 budget by agency:
http://gcn.com/Articles/2011/02/14/Agency-IT-budgets-at-a-glance.aspx?Page=1
Lots of university and DARPA software research projects going on, too.
IC's were initially somewhat subsidised by NASA. If it wasn't for their paying big bucks for the first chips, they would have taken a lot longer to become economic.
PV's also require the same high quality silicon substrate as IC's so there are similarities, but for one glaring difference - size. One draws power, the other creates it. There's only so much sun per area so there are real limitations to PV. IC's on the other hand are limited by the quality of the masking equipment. Did you know some CPU's were reaching the heat output per area of nuclear reactors at one point?
BK,
The depth and breadth of the SLEAZE is astounding! To what extent is this going on in the battery factories and other green jobs factories that the Obummer administration has funneled .gov funding? It would be interesting to just follow the money and see where it went. There has been much speculation that a lot of this money was funneled off to be used in the upcoming election. Do you find any truth in that speculation?
DaddyO
what is amazing is that while green energy flounders in the US its trail blazing in China and elsewhere. The Germans now have tha DBM lithium cell battery which is a game changer. And Desertec seems to be picking up steam for Africa. Stay tuned...
Wake up doofus. This is an engineering problem, leave it to the engineers; don't allow politicians within a mile of this question. Once you reacquaint yourself with reality; you find out that you have permission to burn coal; and it doesn't matter; it doesn't do Jack Shit to anything. Well, that's not true, the increased amount of the trace gas CO2 has been very beneficial to world food production; green plants live on CO2. The whole thing is an example of human greed and power hunger, on the part of the UN, followed by the ability to create cult-like believers by modern propaganda, and it's potentially fatal; so you really better get over it. Oh, and by the way, nuclear power plants work just fine; and it's possible to get your head out of your ass and design one that doesn't have built in problems; once you get the government to go away and hide somewhere.
I remember your spiel on nuclear power plants only too well; you said " Melt down in Fukushima is impossible"...Who is the 'fucktard' who pretends to understand engineering?
BTW : I was a engineer in the oil industry before they pissed me off and I became an entrepreneur in recycling. SO I know both industries and basic thermo dynamics.
Don't BS beyond your limits of competence, you techno-drivel-crat. Your remarks on Fuku have branded you for what you truly are... A know it all dumb ass...as your avatar so openly proclaims... without the slighest sense of humor; play it again, Sam.
The official disconnect has finally occurred. There is no, (0), none, zilch, nada, trust in the Ones Who Care For Us All, /<sarc>/ any more. And they know it. And they also know that we won't do Jack Schitt about any fumble-buck that comes down the line. There is no scandal any more. There is no misappropriation, no misbehavior, nothing so hideous that we, the sheeple will do anything about it. Crime and Evil are committed in broad daylight without fear of reprisal by Republicans, Democrats, Progressives alike. Murder in broad daylight before a crowd of millions.
This is bigger than I have time for right now. My heart is heavy. The system needs a violent breakdown and shakeup before anything will ever remotely resemble reason again. The only thing worse than that happening would be if it never happened. Enter the world of 1984.
Pray that it is quick.
My heart is heavy too. Gold can help you get over that feeling a little.
AMAZING how sleazy this administratiion is. Lies, lies, lies.
Ugh.
face it the whole solar panel industry has gone super nova. It belongs to the chinese and germans, why is there no major American company ? With the construction industry in the toilet what do you expect. If the Great One went for a visit you can be assured the company is in the crapper now, with his touch. Expect a new "green jobs" push when the Great One announces his new "jobs package".
The German solar industry is in its last legs. They are being undercut by the Chinese.
Solar does not work too well at 50 degree latitude , then the sun disappears every night..... it gets cloudy sometimes........
America should start looking towards that other famous republic for its energy & transport solutions.
You live in Europe and your brain functions pretty well, so I'll post this to you. I'm always glad of chance to publicize it. Germany is ga-ga over how "green" they are. They have a green industry center, and a solar industry town, and blah, blah, blah. The sun doesn't shine in Germany. This is a simplification, but you know what I mean, right? But after you get people brainwashed to believe in global warming; they become malleable and the professional propagandists can do wonders at "creating a consensus". So, the punch line? Germany pays their electric bill every year, just like you pay an electric bill; to FRANCE. Why, ? Because France has a real world grown-up electrical industry based on the basically zero emissions nuclear reactor. the bill is hundreds of millions of Euros every year. Alll this "green business" in America is "tax farming"; it's all, in every case, supported by the goobermint; ie. the taxpayer. It's a scam. This thing that Bruce just looked at, that would like to crawl back under its rock and hide from the sunlight, (snicker, snicker), is just a simple fraudulent scam. Nothing more and nothing less. Oh, and buy the way, Denmark, the "greenist" country in the world which is paved, wall to wall, with windmills, pays their electric bill to Germany every year; (it feeds through from France). Look it up. Human beings are monstrously stupid.
You haven't learnt how to count. The french Nuclear industry is an economic sham since forty years, an example of knee jerk Colbertism, that neglected, systematically hid, the truths of the economic aftermath of TMI traumatic incident of 1979; that showed the world that the REAL price of the electrical KWH should INCLUDE the cost of decommissioning old plants at shut-down PLUS solutioning the nuclear waste treatment in a long term sustainable way. Both aspects were neglected, CHEATED ON, by the french national monopoly technocrats, and have been since then, in a state hush-hush economic ponzi scheme. And NOW, when they try and impose their new generation design EPR reactors, post Fukushima, whose costs have balooned for technical reasons in both the Finland project underway as in the new french project, associated with insufficient safety fail-safe regulation and technical features as Fuku has tragically shown for the previous GE reactor designs, they have to admit that the nuclear KWH in France will INCREASE by a quantum jump as it must incorporate not ONLY the cost of increased safety improvements, not only increased costs of imports of supply constrained Uranium from Africa, but ALSO the DOUBLE Whammy of decommissiong of PAST plants that will shut down in ten years AND the decommission costs of the NEW EPR that will have to be amortised over forty years, PLUS the additional cost of SAFE, sustainable nuclear fuel disposal facilities, rather than just burying them in the ground or in the ocean, as has been notorious practice in the past.
The cost of the nuclear KWH will know a SPIKE like we had never imagined post Fukushima...IQ 145, you are a prize moron. Using nuclear power to "boil water" is a true recipe for recurrent disaster.The guy who said that had a true IQ of >169...not a virtual one of 145.
France has poor quality very limited coal reserves , declining tiny gas reserves and no oil but with a heritage of heavy enginering in hydro / military projects
If America was is this position it would experience close to 18th century living conditions me thinks
Even if it does cost many billions to decommission plants this money is not exported to coal & gas producers in Russia and else where - it stays in the homeland.
Even if uranium doubles in price it will not add much to the % increase in the cost of production as fixed capital costs for Nuclear are much higher then fuel costs.
The new Finnish plant is indeed having serious problems - but it is a new design , it not really surprising - at least they are making a effort seeking new horizons.
Northern latitude countries need a High density energy source as it gets cold and dark in the Winter and some countries do not have the luxury of cheap coal.
The UK energy doctrine has been a disaster kept alive by cheap oil much like the States - do you wish to follow that energy cul de sac ?
The Republic of Kleptostan?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBunJcr1DP8
And then right after installation RoboTrader will move in to join his long lost love...Leo!
Leo K is currently installing solar panels on igloos in the Inuit (Nunatsiavut, Nunavik, Nunavut) portions of northern Canada. They will pay for themselves in 941 years.
Where has our friend Leo been lately?
In Greece, doing the riot circuit.
Hell, it'd make more sense to have them up there.... land of the midnight sun... I mean actual panels... not investments in panel manufacturers.
Especially them from China. Who knows what poison and radioactive shit they dump in the things for export to the US.
We all know the system is rotten, but it's great to see examples this specific. Nice work. The best place to hide is, after all, in plain sight.
Poor Leo
It's the olde adage; Neither a great product or company makes not a great stock.
So, from an investment standpoint... xphlegfht.
So, as long as there's exceess supply of the product and pricing is soooooooooooooooo very deleterious to the product provider, meeaning cheap to the buyer, what with rates as low as they are and the miserable outlook for stocks, installing the little psckers just might make some sense to augment the bonds/gold barbell, eh?
Especially that the manufacturer will funance the stuff.... LOL
Absolutely the first thing I thought of.
me too
LMFAO
“I don’t take money from oil companies or Washington lobbyists”
No, just from oil tycoons. And giant zombie banks. Their lobbyists are mostly based in NYC. 'S all good.
Is that a Rick Perry quote?
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“I don’t take money from oil companies or Washington lobbyists”
No he earns it fair and square.
Yup.
go Green------ Federal $
Negative gross margins, bitchez!
A negative article