In 2006, solar-panel manufacturer Conergy moved into the never-used computer chip factory, joining Odersun, already headquartered in the city. In 2007, the United States solar giant First Solar opened a factory as well, followed by a second one last year.
Now, though, the future suddenly looks decidedly dark. Odersun declared bankruptcy in March and Conergy, while pledging to return to profit this year, has seen its share price lose 99.6 percent of its value in the last five years. Many doubt the company will survive. Worst of all, however, was the announcement earlier this month that First Solar was closing both of its factories in Frankfurt an der Oder; 1,200 people will soon be jobless as a result.
“We saw the solar industry as a chance to reindustrialize the region and invested significantly in incentives,” Frankfurt an der Oder Mayor Martin Wilke told SPIEGEL ONLINE. “This is a serious setback. It is a very difficult situation.”
And that’s just for starters.
h/t Maz2
CONergy? Really? Nobody saw that?
I guess the joke’s on them then.
I e-mailed Sask. Gov. and asked why they are spending 4-5 billion $ on this CO2 fraud and got no answer. ( We will spend your money but don’t ask why?) That is the answer the Wall gov gives. Let’s hope next time we can find someone that doesn’t piss our money against the wall.
Reality and its handmaiden, arithmetic, have a way of asserting themselves despite the most fervid conceptualizations of Green ideologues. (Though I am disturbed that the mayor–presumably old enough to shave–of a large modern city in a country world-renowned for its technological sophistication needs to be bitten by reality before recognizing it.)
Thank god the science is settled and we don’t have to debate it anymore. When these companies go bankrupt, I hope the new ones are in AB so I can be a part of saving the earth.
They’re all going to zero, and nothing except a flood of government subsidies can stop it. And given who Europe (read Germany) has to come up with another trillion plus Euros to bail out their banking system, the chance of that is slim to zip. And the China competition that’s buryng them all? It’s cutting back production as well starting a year ago.
The fat lady has sung, the lights have been shot out, the sun has set on the solar PV industry.
Politcians — driven by GREED and FEAR.
Greed for gaining more power, and retaining what power they have. Fear of losing power.
Now we should start asking questions;
http://quixoteslaststand.com//?s=The+moneys+gone
h/t Pointman
Note that Frankfurt an der Oder is a small city in the former East Germany section – not the Frankfurt that most of us think of in the west. That city really couldn’t afford to throw away cash on pipe dreams.
This failure will really hurt.
The science is settled the science has said this crap does not work foreveeeeeeer.
Doesn’t exposure to UV radiation reduce the life of solar panels? Maybe we should cover them so they last longer.
mike
What is one to think? First Solar and George Soros have cleaned out the market and moved on…
The real danger in all this crap is that the next generation will have forgotten the past and will not know how to produce sufficient Food, Energy, or Shelter….Fools are Slaves
Bird killers in Germany are not succeeding either.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,805505,00.html
But, but, but everyone told us that green energy was the wave of the future, that a country that didn’t invest heavily in its manufacture NOW would be left behind bobbing helplessly in the wake of progress, that anybody that didn’t get in was a schmuck and a loser.
I wonder how Gore’s investment portfolio is doing.
East Germany after the Marxist regime collapse was particularly ill treated by its new “friends” in the successor West German government/West German unions.
Instead of holding wages well below those in the west and encouraging private foreign and domestic companies to make early profitable business based investments,
the opposite took place. The skilled and well educated workers of the east were left to either move west or go on the dole while the new bureaucrats in charge dawdled
over massive plans for building their empires and arranging massive subsidies to attract the sort of fly by night fake industries that are now failing.
A glimpse into the future of Ontario.
Kevin Jaeger – exactly; Frankfurt an der Oder isn’t Frankfurt am Main.
It is stressed and distressed; the difference between West and East Germany, just across the river, is quite stunning and very obvious in this small city. As noted, they gave lots of incentives to get those solar companies to locate there – and have been dealt with very badly by them.
East Germany after the Marxist regime collapse was particularly ill treated by its new “friends” in the successor West German government/West German unions.
Instead of holding wages well below those in the west and encouraging private foreign and domestic companies to make early profitable business based investments,
the opposite took place. The skilled and well educated workers of the east were left to either move west or go on the dole while the new bureaucrats in charge dawdled
over massive plans for building their empires and arranging massive subsidies to attract the sort of fly by night fake industries that are now failing.
Now’s the time to buy in, stocks are down 99.6% from their high. If the environment is the great moral challenge of our time and Suzuki really believes he has the answers to ‘saving the planet’ why doesn’t he put his money where his mouth is, buy these companies and show us how it’s done. Kate, please use your powers and connections to start a drive to get the old hipocrite to put up or shut up.
Alinsky’s rule number 4: Make them live up to their own rules.
“Now’s the time to buy in, stocks are down 99.6% from their high.”
Yep. May as well get in on the dead cat bounce.
R.I.M.??
GM?
Chrysler?
Anyone can tell you that solar and wind energy are not reliable for industrial purposes but as long as there is a government ready to rip off a taxpayer, these things will have funds.
Wind has been around for millenia…Persians were first apparently….
When internal combustion engines and rural electrification arrived wind was abandoned even in the Netherlands….
The windmills were not abandoned because we ran outa wind…anymore than the stone age ended because we ran outa rocks.
the odour of Franfurt an der Oder…
the odour of Franfurt an der Oder…
thermodynamics
energy density
Navies…………… switched from wind to coal… from coal to oil… and finally from oil to nuclear. You can bet they will never switch to solar. Not ever.
i could go on……….but what do i know
genius
“I think the cost of energy will come down when we make this transition to renewable energy.”
Al Gore
i quit