Fremont’s Solyndra Wins First DoE Funding
Obama Administration Offers $535 Million Loan Guarantee to Solyndra, Inc. Investment Could Lead to Thousands of New Jobs
Energy Secretary Steven Chu today offered a $535 million loan guarantee for Solyndra, Inc. to support the company’s construction of a commercial-scale manufacturing plant for its proprietary cylindrical solar photovoltaic panels. The company expects to create thousands of new jobs in the U.S. while deploying its solar panels across the U.S. and around the world.
The cylindrical design captures more light for more annual solar electricity generation, a bit like the evacuated tube solar thermal systems.
Solyndra panels employ cylindrical modules which capture sunlight across a 360-degree photovoltaic surface capable of converting direct, diffuse and reflected sunlight into electricity.
This self-tracking design allows Solyndra’s PV systems to capture more sunlight than traditional flat-surfaced solar panels.
My source, a friend of the CEO, described it like this:
“They had applied for an available DOE funding program two years ago, and were just strung along all that time. To make a long story short…
… they put themselves on the radar once more, after Obama took office and Steven Chu was confirmed as Secretary of Energy. Lo and behold! They are now in the happy position of being the first recipients of the DOE’s loan guarantee program which is part of the stimulus bill… w00t!”
How good it is to hear of real actual progress on the innovative renewable energy front amidst all the gloom and doom. Now let these innovation-driven green jobs rain down on Fremont, California! Yay!
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