Solyndra gets the first loan guarantee

On Friday, the Obama administration announced its first loan guarantee to a Fremon-based firm:

Energy Secretary Steven Chu today offered a $535 million loan guarantee for Solyndra, Inc. to support the company’s construction of a commercial-scale manufacturing plant for its proprietary cylindrical solar photovoltaic panels. The company expects to create thousands of new jobs in the U.S. while deploying its solar panels across the U.S. and around the world.

Green blog Climate Progress argues that the administration buried the news by announcing it on Friday.

Still, this gives us a better idea of how and when the administration will be helping RE companies — and also a path forward for RE companies that can’t or won’t deploy utility scale generation solutions.