What I haven’t heard in the media is any reporting on why it went bankrupt. 
Solyndra was not selling conventional solar panels that are essentially a flat rectangle with the surface covered with photovoltaic cells. Solyndra's idea was to put the photoelectric cells on rods inside glass tubes. The idea was that some portion of the cells would be pointed directly at the sun at all times. (photo of Solyndar panels at left). The problem was that the idea did not work. Solyndra panels produce less electricity per unit area than conventional panels and not enough cost savings to make up the difference.
Solyndra was not selling conventional solar panels that are essentially a flat rectangle with the surface covered with photovoltaic cells. Solyndra's idea was to put the photoelectric cells on rods inside glass tubes. The idea was that some portion of the cells would be pointed directly at the sun at all times. (photo of Solyndar panels at left). The problem was that the idea did not work. Solyndra panels produce less electricity per unit area than conventional panels and not enough cost savings to make up the difference. An employee with an alternative energy system installation company that had a contract with the US Forest Service to install systems in visitor centers and other buildings in the Rocky Mountain Region has reported that in the process of filling the contract his company considered Solyndra’s system. They quickly concluded that it was inferior to conventional solar panels and moved on to other products.
The point is that the Solyndra bankruptcy was not caused because we just haven’t put enough subsidy. It was just an inferior product idea that should never have been put into mass production. Low level Solyndra employees have been on talk radio testifying that everyone at Solyndra knew during the construction of the massive factory subsidized by half a billion of our tax dollars that the product would not sell. We now know why; it was just a bad idea that never should have let the drawing room floor.
It appears that the Solyndra idea at first seemed reasonable, but, after a lot of investment in product development, it became clear that the idea just was a bust. Edison tried thousands of light bulb ideas before he found the one that was cheap and easy to make and worked diffidently. Edison had no government program to foist his bad ideas on and recoup his expenses. He had to keep going at his own risk till he found the right combination. Solyndra had a better idea. make the government pay for their mistake.
So the investors did what any red blooded socialist would do. Buy a politician. Then use the influence to get a bail out and stick the tax payer with the loss. Immediately after Obama took office, internal memo’s show his staff members were telling DOE to fast rack the Solyndra loan that had previously been denied. A half billion dollars was shortly awarded.
No one knows if all the money actually went into the business or if some was funneled off to the investors in the form of big salaries, bonuses perks, overpriced insider contracts etc. So far there has been no public disclosure of any accounting of what happened to the money. In any event Solyndra built a huge state of the art factory with government funding to build solar panels everyone knew were inferior to the standard product.
The key was that shortly before it went belly up, Solyndara convinced DOE to subordinate the public loan to the private investors' claims. That way, when the big factory and state of the art machinery, purchased with government funds are sold off in bankruptcy the money will go to pay back the original investors, i.e. big Democratic donors, and the American people will be left holding the bag.
Internal memos recently produced show Kaiser was musing to subordinates whether the public would notice his connection when the company eventually failed. And who would notice a wasted half a billion out of 880 billion stimulus package? Unfortunately for Kaiser, it got noticed by Republican members of the House. The point here is that everyone knew Solyndra was a scam and the loans were straight forward graft from the get go.
Other favors to big democratic donors have been coming to light. Tesla motors, the maker of a pricey $100,000 electric sports car backed by Al Gore got a half billion dollar loan guarantee. Petrobras, the Brazillion state owned deep water oil drilling company heavily owned by George Soros, got a one billion dollar loan to conduct deep water drilling of Brazil's coast. Fisker Motors, an electric car start up with no track record and Democratic donors, got a half billion dollar loan guarantee form DOE on the promise to build a factory in Delaware. The manufacturing went to a factory in Finland. Not to worry, they promise the next factory will be in the US. Don't hold your breath.
Signa Technologies, owned by billionaire and big Democratic donor, won a no bid half a billion dollar contract to supply a won a new and untested vaccine for small pox for the government even though there is already a proven vaccine and the government has vast stock piles of it and worst of all, there hasn't been a reported case of small pox since 1978 in the US.
The list goes no. This is the most transparant govenment in history we were promised. Unfortunately, all "transparant" means to Obama is that he doesn't even bother to hide the graft.
