A123 battery maker files for bankruptcy.

[Swampy]

A123 was the boy wonder of the tech industry, and Obama made it a showpiece in his election campaign, but it has gone bankrupt. This is the problem with investing in high-risk high-tech, because, despite hundreds of millions in government funding, it still couldn't deliver the goods, namely, proper electrical batteries.

But risks like this will have to be made, because there's too much money in the system, technological innovation is narrowing to just apps and social media, which means such risks have to be taken in the hopes that a new industrial revolution will emerge.

[dontom]

Oct 17, 2012 21:12:17 GMT -5 Swampy said:

A123 was the boy wonder of the tech industry, and Obama made it a showpiece in his election campaign, but it has gone bankrupt.

Then let's give Obama some credit. Of the 27 "green" companies that Obama loaned money too, only 4 of them filed for bankruptcy. That's better than 27 "green" businesses going bankrupt, don't you think?

I don't have a problem with the USA government spending some of my money in America on "green". But I have a big problem with spending it in other countries, such as forcing democracy on Iraq.

Many Muslims believe democracy is almost the same as blasphemy. IOW, law has to come from God, not man. While I believe that is complete nonsense, I realize there is a reason why there are different countries. I don't want them to force their nonsense on us and I don't think we should force our nonsense (at least to them) on them.

IAC, spend the money here in the USA, or for the USA, and I won't even complain much if they party with it.

-Don- SSF, CA

[boxcar]

Don>>Then let's give Obama some credit. Of the 27 "green" companies that Obama loaned money too, only 4 of them filed for bankruptcy. <<

Not quite right. Here is the list:


1.Evergreen Solar ($24 million)*
2.SpectraWatt ($500,000)*
3.Solyndra ($535 million)*
4.Beacon Power ($69 million)*
5.AES’s subsidiary Eastern Energy ($17.1 million)
6.Nevada Geothermal ($98.5 million)
7.SunPower ($1.5 billion)
8.First Solar ($1.46 billion)
9.Babcock and Brown ($178 million)
10.EnerDel’s subsidiary Ener1 ($118.5 million)*
11.Amonix ($5.9 million)
12.National Renewable Energy Lab ($200 million)
13.Fisker Automotive ($528 million)
14.Abound Solar ($374 million)*
15.A123 Systems ($279 million)*
16.Willard and Kelsey Solar Group ($6 million)
17.Johnson Controls ($299 million)
18.Schneider Electric ($86 million)
19.Brightsource ($1.6 billion)
20.ECOtality ($126.2 million)
21.Raser Technologies ($33 million)*
22.Energy Conversion Devices ($13.3 million)*
23.Mountain Plaza, Inc. ($2 million)*
24.Olsen’s Crop Service and Olsen’s Mills Acquisition Company ($10 million)*
25.Range Fuels ($80 million)*
26.Thompson River Power ($6.4 million)*
27.Stirling Energy Systems ($7 million)*
28.LSP Energy ($2.1 billion)*
29.UniSolar ($100 million)*
30.Azure Dynamics ($120 million)*
31.GreenVolts ($500,000)
32.Vestas ($50 million)
33.LG Chem’s subsidiary Chemical Power ($150 million)
34.Nordic Windpower ($16 million)*
35.Navistar ($10 million)
36.Satcon ($3 million)*

*Denotes companies that have filed for bankruptcy.

[boxcar]

>>The 2009 stimulus set aside $80 billion to subsidize politically preferred energy projects. Since that time, 1,900 investigations have been opened to look into stimulus waste, fraud, and abuse (although not all are linked to the green-energy funds), and nearly 600 convictions have been made. Of that $80 billion in clean energy loans, grants, and tax credits, at least 10 percent has gone to companies that have since either gone bankrupt or are circling the drain.<<

[dontom]

Oct 18, 2012 16:13:05 GMT -5 boxcar said:

Not quite right. Here is the list:

That's what I get for getting my info from another forum instead of looking up the facts for myself. Thanks for the info., not that I really care that Obama tried to help several green companies that failed. Perhaps many of them were saved because of Obama. That we will never know for sure.

-Don- SSF, CA