Week 7 Essay
Solyndra
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The task at hand is to discuss the legal and ethical issues on Solyndra, a company that went defunct, and in
doing so defaulted on a $525 million dollar loan it received from the government. Solyndra was a
California based solar cylinder manufacturer. A little background on Solyndra. Solyndra was a solar cell
manufacturer that approached the solar panel design in a different way. “Solyndra roll(ed) its copper-
indium-gallium-diselenide (CIGS) thin films into a glass cylinder and places 40 of them in each 1-meter-
by-2-meter panel.” (Wang, 2008). This technology was able to get a lot more energy from the sun, as it had
more aspects for energy to get to the actual panel. An example would be if these panels were on the roof,
they would have the energy from the direct sunlight, it also has the ability to get energy a side aspect, and
most impressively, it is able to gather energy from reflections, such as a white painted roof. This gives the
ability to gather energy with 12 to 14% sunlight, almost nothing. Being able to convert energy from such a
small amount of sunlight is a pretty astounding feat. The panels were then partnered up with a newer type
of energy storage, sort of like a battery, but much more efficient, and there is no end of life cycle using this
technology. The technology these Solyndra cells were partnered to was a flywheel type of energy storage.
