Remember Solyndra, favorite whipping boy of conservative haters of everything Obama? Solyndra manufactured solar panels. They claimed to have had a proprietary design that resulted in more efficient electricity generation when installed on rooftops. The company received a $535 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. This and $198 million from private investors financed construction of their state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in Fremont California.
Almost immediately, the price of silicon plummeted, making its competitors’ products so cheap that Solyndra could not compete, even with a purportedly superior product. The company entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 
mid-2011. Critics accused President Obama of corruption, giving money to his political supporters. Milder criticism was that the federal government should not be betting on winners in what is supposed to be a competitive marketplace.
The U.S. Energy Department’s loan programs have generated $1.65 billion dollars interest income to date. Designed during the George W. Bush administration, the program’s purpose is to support energy innovation that cannot get financing from banks. It has supported solar farms, nuclear design and other technologies. Drowned out by the noise about Solyndra, is the $465 million loaned to Elon Musk’s Tesla Motors, paid back nine years ahead of schedule.
The Department has approved thirty loans, with a loss ratio of 2.3%, better than banks. The program expects to bring in $5 billion, including the Solyndra loss.
Read Bloomberg’s summary here. Or get down in the weeds with detail from the liberal OurFuture.org.
