The solar
company Solyndra received more than $500 million in loan guarantees from the
Obama administration. This company
was going to be the answer for an affordable solar panel that was cheap and
convenient. Solyndra was creating
jobs of the future according to Vice-President Joe Biden. But it didn’t quite work out like that.
The price of
silicon panels plummeted making Solyndra’s product uncompetitive in its
market. The company spent all of
its money trying to stay afloat and declared bankruptcy and had to fire 1100
workers. Many think that the
failure of Solyndra shows that the government isn’t investing their money
wisely. But there is little
evidence that the money invested in the company was a reckless decision; there
was a process that involved 3000 outside experts that led to the green
light.
Many venture
capitalists say that of the companies that they fund they expect a third of
them to fail and that when a failure happens it’s just a part of business. The Department of Energy has given out
nearly $20 billion in loan guarantees to renewable energy companies and the
only company that has defaulted was Solyndra. Personally, I think that that is a great statistic. I know people are always hoping things
fail in order to prove a point.
But the venture capitalists are right when they say it’s all just apart
of business. Things are going to
succeed and things are going to fail.
So the fact that only one tiny part of the $20 billion has gone down the
drain tells me that the people in the Department of Energy are investing their
money wisely.
Obviously global warming is coming and it's inevitable if we don't change our ways. Many like to think that renewable energy is a waste of money and time when we could be saving the world in other ways. But I think that this article needed to be shared to show that the money isn't going to waste.
