Between the Chinese solar panel surplus in 2008 and an industry that cannot live without a government subsidy the solar industry was destined to fail. Why don’t you stop with your ‘bullying comments’ and do some research.

Thought so.

Based on your comments you must be a bit slow to breakfast.

Give us some proof of your claim, not an offhand comment about something that might have been said by a right wing propaganda tank.

Give us a reliable source of significant surplus numbers of panels and an offer to sell at a price significantly below current market prices.

Both Chu and Sandolow have sold out the US by giving US technology to China. Isn’t that an breach of national security?

We’re at stage one with algae fuel. It’s now been made. The next task will be to see if it can be made cheap enough to use on a wide scale basis.

And that those panels were cheaper than Solyndra’s product, fully installed.

Private companies carry on research for years. But they generally don’t do the basic research that has made America a world leader in new technology.
University researchers commonly form private companies to commercialize their findings. Universities and the government get payback through licensing agreements.

Your knowledge pool is very shallow. Nothing more than a gleam of moisture on an otherwise empty void.

The reason that the DOE is being investigated it that Republican in the House of Representative are looking to score political points for the upcoming election cycle. Pure and simple.

Researchers have no interest in commercializing anything. They love to live off of grant money. That is why $700 – $900 billion are being cut from the DOE budget.

We’re not.

Do you not know the history of research and technology development? Lots of ideas don’t work but some do. There is no way to know what will work or not work until the research has been done and the ideas tried.

The US taxpayer spends well over $2.5 billion dollars per day on imported oil, oil wars and the health and environmental damage caused by burning coal.

Per day.

Spending one day’s dollars wasted on fossil fuel to find an alternative to avoid that more than $1 trillion dollars per year is a tiny investment with incredibly huge potential payoff.

$ trillion per year. One thousand billion. 400 times more in one year than what we’ve spent on algae-fuel research in 50 years. 20,000 times more per year.

You are totally correct that in business you are not given 50 years to research anything. And that’s why we have to do the heavy lifting of
research with government money. Private industry will simply do what is
cheapest/most profitable at the moment.

I challenge you to find a single technology which you use which was not
built on top of government-funded research. Don’t even dare suggest
computers, the internet, GPS, cell phones, modern medicine, air travel,
plastics, ….

Soon after funding the price of flat panels fell like a rock. Absolutely no one was predicting this abrupt change in prices.

Are you going to condemn someone for not possessing a crystal ball in order to know the unknowable?

Solydra story is opening a huge can of worms at the DOE LOAN GURANTEE LOAN PROGRAM. Its not just about the Solar loan guarantee program. Look at all the millions in fees collected by the DOE LOAN GUARANTEE PROGRAM with projects 20% completed. Also, an audit needs to be done on DOE GRANTS to individuals from the DOE that are now working in private industry. Very incestuous! There needs to be an audit on each individual loan program for amount funded and results!

The US taxpayer has spent over $2.5 billion dollars over the last 50 years on algae research. To date, nothing has been commercialized by any algae researcher.

The REAL question is: Does the DOE BIOMASS PROGRAM really want the US off of foreign oil or do they want to continue funding more grants for algae research to keep algae researchers employed at universities for another 50 years?

In business, you are not given 50 years to research anything. The problem is in the Congressional Mandate that says the DOE can only use taxpayer monies on algae research, NOT algae production in the US. So far, research has not got the US off of foreign oil for the last 50 years!

New tech is generally very expensive. You know anything at all about the price history of computers?

As tech matures prices drop. With algae fuel we have the possibility of making it cheaper. We have no option with oil, it will get more expensive.

The US military totally understands that oil is going to become more and more of a problem as time goes on. That’s why they are working right now to find alternatives. Just like they’re installing solar and wind generation to cut their fuel usage.

(And Dr. Chu is not responsible for Solyndra’s failure. You need to quit sucking the Fox pipe. It rots brains.)