, 13 tweets, 2 min read Read on Twitter
Fun fact: Solyndra was the 1st firm to get a renewable loan because it was #1 on Bush DOE’s list. (Also: The loan portfolio is profitable.)
Screw it, let’s do this. Bush’s DOE ranked Solyndra #1 out of 143 applicants. Richard Branson’s fund ranked it #1 of 117 applicants. 2
Did you know Solyndra raised $1B in private capital? It was the toast of the Valley. Its tech was revolutionary. 3
Did you know Solyndra’s revenues soared from $6M in 2008 to $140M in 2010? It was an innovative company selling a new kind of solar panel. 4
So what happened? Cheap solar happened. Solyndra’s business model assumed expensive solar; its cool tech turned out to be unnecessary. 5
So Solyndra failed. But the Fox News take that solar failed was 100% wrong; solar installations have increased 40-fold. 6
The failure rate of Obama’s clean energy loan portfolio is only 3%. In my opinion that’s too low. They should’ve financed riskier stuff. 7
But the point of the $90B for clean energy in the Obama stimulus was to launch a clean energy revolution in the US. And it worked. 8
Solyndra and A123 failed. So did the biorefineries and carbon capture projects. But solar, wind, LEDs and batteries took off. 9
They weren’t “picking winners and losers.” They picked the game of clean energy, and let the market sort out winners and losers. 10
Solyndra lost. That was a shame, but it was not a scandal. None of the million investigations found wrongdoing. 11
But it will be hard to make the investments needed to fix the climate, because all we remember about the last investments is Solyndra. END
I should’ve mentioned that all these fun facts and so many others were in a fun book: amazon.com/New-Deal-Hidde… END FOR REAL
Missing some Tweet in this thread?
You can try to force a refresh.

Like this thread? Get email updates or save it to PDF!

Subscribe to Michael Grunwald
Profile picture

Get real-time email alerts when new unrolls are available from this author!

This content may be removed anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime, convert it as a PDF, save and print for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video

1) Follow Thread Reader App on Twitter so you can easily mention us!

2) Go to a Twitter thread (series of Tweets by the same owner) and mention us with a keyword "unroll" @threadreaderapp unroll

You can practice here first or read more on our help page!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just three indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3.00/month or $30.00/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!