Depending on the slant of the news sources you look to, you may have heard the Solyndra affair referred to as anything from a scandal illustrating the folly of government promotion of green energy to a simple management failure that shouldn’t take away from the overall importance of promoting renewable energy.
In an article on Renewable Energy World’s Solar Roundup, it’s pointed out that while some lawmakers whine about the government’s risky support of the ultimately unsuccessful Solyndra, the reality is that our government is being far less ambitious than China’s. For example, according to the United States Department of Energy’s Executive Director Jonathan Silver, China provides as much as 20 times as much investment in renewable energy as the United States over the same period of time.
So while it may sound as though the government was being irresponsible in investing Solyndra, in the larger scheme of things the government may need to get a whole lot more aggressive if it’s serious about supporting a shift to greener energy sources.
You can read more about the topic here.
