California eyes solar path around Solyndra wreckage

FREMONT, California (Reuters) – California political leaders chose a site near the headquarters of Solyndra to kick off hearings on how the state’s growing cleantech industry can proceed in the wake of that solar company’s dramatic collapse.

The solar industry is especially reeling now that its stand-out champion, First Solar Inc, just ousted its boss and warned on profits in the face of the same stiff Chinese competition that felled Solyndra.

Yet people who “had never supported cleantech” should not be allowed to use Solyndra against the sector and its backers, said Ellen Corbett, California’s Senate majority leader, at the meeting of executives and investors in Fremont on Wednesday.

She was echoed by Bob Wieckowski, a state assembly member who said of the Solyndra bankruptcy filing last month: “I do not believe it should be seen as a referendum on government efforts” to promote clean energy…

Read More: California eyes solar path around Solyndra wreckage via Reuters